Taking a Toll

Now I'm not whining (well, maybe a little), but there are days, more than usual, when R and I feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders. Did you ever get that way?

We new from the outset of the Grateful Dumpling that this would be hard, and that prediction is panning out. I have to confess that it is taking a bit of a toll on this household on a number of levels. Our healthy eating plan seems to go out the window on days that have anything remotely to do with making and selling dumplings, which is 3-4 days out of the week. When we're at the market, healthy food is hard to come by, and on days when we're cooking the dumplings, healthy food is hard to make. Gotta find some balance in there.

Also, since cooking can be such a mess, it takes a lot of time cleaning up afterward, not to mention making and cooking the darn things. Because of this added strain and fatigue, I'm finding that we are snapping a little more at each other and my moods are not always the brightest and the best. Needless to say, free time is at a premium, not to mention sleep. I think our kids think we're crazy, not to mention pretty much every person we know.

When friends and acquaintances ask us why we're doing this, I still can't give them an adequate answer, but I can say this: it is most definitely not to support our fabulously luxurious lifestyles.

I'm working on an answer, so please check back with me in a few weeks.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Jenny Z for the pic.