…I have my act together. I don’t.  I mean, I’m not a hot mess or anything, but I don’t ever want people to read my blog and walk away with the idea that I am churning out furniture while my hair is perfectly styled and my home is perfectly clean and my laundry is perfectly folded and put away and my children are playing perfectly together and I’m eating perfectly healthy and then getting a perfectly adequate amount of sleep each night.  That level of perfection isn’t going on in the mustard seed household and I’m sure it never will.

I told my husband the other day, “If I knew this milk paint thing was going to involve so much work and so many other people, I would’ve waited until I was ready for it and the boys were in school!”  He pointed out that there was no way I could’ve known that my little idea to sell some milk paint colors I liked in cute packaging was going to blow up all over the place!  It’s awesome, but it’s been a challenge to balance everything.  I’ve had to spend a lot of time answering e-mail and processing potential retailers.  The labels and packaging have taken weeks longer than I thought…

…and I wasn’t planning for how expensive thousands of boxes and labels would be.  (My initial thought was to order about 240 boxes and have 20 of each color.)  Well, I ended up having to order 5000 and we already have to order more!  Craziness.  Awesome, but crazy.  And I have all sorts of things around my house that have been staring me in the face…like a pair of Craig’s List chairs that really need some new fabric and a paint job…

…and we’re going to be tiling our kitchen floor (Carrera marble…purrrr)…

…and we’re also going to put wood-like laminate flooring in our family room and master bedroom.  I’m looking forward to saying buh-bye to the stained carpet and the patch of plywood under our TV console.

…and I still need to paint this board we had to use for mounting our curtain hardware.  It seems that even anchors in drywall can’t stand up to a 3 year old hanging on a curtain panel (go figure.)  The wall was so chewed up, we had to install this board to hold the curtain rod securely in place.  I need to paint it the wall color, so it’s not so in-your-face.

…and my parents, who just moved into their new home in Pennsylvania last week (I’ve been helping them paint and get settled), are waiting for me to upholster this headboard for them.

…and my white slipcovers were so nasty I had to soak them in bleach for about an hour and my blinds and ceiling fan blades are a little fuzzy.  On top of everything I’ve been doing and need to do, I have been so sleep deprived, my body finally gave into a nasty sinus infection that knocked me out yesterday.

I’m not saying all of this to complain or make it sound like I’m so much busier than everyone else.  I have a really awesome, blessed life and this is a very exciting time for me.  My business has been a bit of a freight train, though, and it’s time to squeeze the brake a little and get some balance back.  I need more sleep, more purposeful exercise, less time at the computer, more time laughing and being outside.  More time working on the things I really want to work on and less time saying “yes” to things that only clutter up my time.   I have to make time for things like a spa day that was given to me for my birthday (in April) and an eye exam and a haircut.

A part of being more balanced is eating better, so I’m getting rid of everything in the pantry that has processed corn, MSG and other not-so-great stuff.  (Don’t worry, I’m donating all of the unopened food.)

…and the cabinets are pretty sparse at this point, but it’s a start.

I’m also going to bid farewell to my beloved Diet Dr. Pepper (DDP).  I’m not saying I won’t ever, ever have one again, but honestly…it’s not the healthiest thing for me to be downing all day.  I’ve been at this place with food before and I always go back to my old eating ways, but I usually leave some bad habits behind, if that makes sense.  I rid myself of foods and then I don’t go back to them, because they don’t taste good to me anymore.  So, I’m NOT dieting.  I’m just going to be balanced and give myself the opportunity to make good choices by removing a lot of the bad ones.  We’ll see how it goes, but I am ready for it.  I’m ready to get my act together.

This is a fun ride, but I don’t want to be dragging behind just holding on for dear life.  I want to enjoy it and celebrate.  I want to be firmly buckled in, so when I go over the apex of the hill and around the loops, I can just raise my hands and scream with delight.

I’m honored to be a guest over at Brooklyn Limestone for the trash to treasure series.  I share a bit more behind the scenes of the Typewriter dresser makeover.

The winner of the Vintage Skye giveaway is…

Ann MC.