Pioneer Woman

Last week, Pioneer Woman announced to the world that she, in fact, cannot do it all.

And all I can say is, hallelujah!

Okay, I can actually say much more than that.

Like, I'm so relieved.

I always wondered how she did it all, and apparently, a lot of other women have wondered to. She answered them, publicly, with the afore-linked post, and said that quite frankly, she can't do it all. She admitted to hiring someone to clean her house once a week and hiring someone to come in a do laundry...

And what a relief! I mean, fortunately, she can pay someone to do that. She has created this full-time job/empire and I have no idea how much money it brings in monthly, but I'm quite sure it's a lot. But that confession was like permission for all the rest of us to stop feeling guilty.

I always feel guilty, don't you?

Guilty that my house isn't perfectly clean, guilty that I don't do what I want to do (write, take photos, etc...), guilty that I sometimes spend entire days in my pajamas. Guilty that I don't always make dinner.

Guilty because I'm not Ree (Pioneer Woman).

Before she posted this, my friend and I were talking about this very thing. Her husband had just been mocking all those bloggers who put together elaborate parties and have perfect houses. And I wondered out loud how they do it all, and my friend said, quite simply, that they don't. Something has to give. Right now, she's working part-time and she has four kids. I'm going to graduate school and have a kid. There are choices to be made, because there are only 24 hours in a day.

Of course, she's right.

I know I don't manage the 24 I'm given very well at all, and I'm working on it. But I like to think I'm making good choices with my time. I spend time every day with my little girl. I try to prepare dinner for our family. Stuff like that. I don't have time to put together elaborate valentine's day dinners with cute napkin rings.

But you know what's really ironic? Pioneer Woman said she would be scaling back, and she's already posted two more posts on Confessions since that post. She's posted on Pioneer Woman Cooks once. What happened to scaling back?

Geez, even the "scaled-back" Pioneer Woman sets the bar too high for me.

Back to the guilt.