It can always be worse

I have always tried to be an optimist and often remind myself that even when times are tough, it can always be worse.


This is a lesson that I was clearly reminded of today.

I arrived at the airport today shortly after 1pm for my 3:20pm flight home that would have me landing at 5:20pm and home by 6:30pm at the latest. After I got through security in a relatively short amount of time, I looked at the departure screen and realized my flight was delayed until 4:06pm due to weather. At the time, I was disappointed as all I could think about was getting home and seeing my family as this momma has been suffering from mommy guilt, but I reminded myself it could be worse.

So I found a seat at my gate and tried to keep myself occupied.  Sitting near me was a mother traveling with her 3 small children and her father. I could tell they had been at the airport for quite awhile and their day was not going as planned. So as much as I wanted to get home and didn’t want to be sitting at the airport, I soon realized I was thankful that I was traveling by myself and my 3 little ones were at home and not stuck at the airport with me.

4pm quickly came and went with no action at our gate and I found myself briefly talking with the mother traveling with her 3 young children. They had started their journey this morning by having breakfast at the Boston airport before heading to Newark with Savannah being their final destination. After arriving at the airport this morning, their flight to Newark was delayed and they did not arrive into Newark until 12pm only to find that they had missed their original flight to Savannah. They were re-booked on the 7pm flight which was then cancelled shortly after 4pm. Needless to say by 4pm those 3 kids were done with being at the airport. Thankfully, they had a relative that lived close by the airport where they could spend the night and then come back to the airport in the morning and hopefully have better luck traveling to Savannah.

This mother did an amazing job of keeping her cool and as my flight was delayed by an additional 2 hours now due to mechanical issues, I just kept reminding myself, it could be much worse.

And thankfully by 9:45pm, I was home safe and sound. 

Something to look forward to

Well the next two weeks have this full-time working momma traveling quite a bit which you know often leads to mommy guilt.  I'm trying to not let it get to me as I will be home for the soccer games over the weekend and a few other important family activities. 

Additionally, I have the pleasure of officially launching The Real Farmwives of America and Friends partnership with Gooseberry Patch today.  Be sure to check it out as you, my readers, have one week to determine which Gooseberry Patch cookbook I will prepare 10 recipes out of over the next few months.  The reason you want to have a say in the cookbook I end up with is because after I prepare those 10 recipes, I will be giving away a copy of the exact same cookbook I used thanks to Gooseberry Patch. 

So although I will be traveling some in the coming weeks, I will have plenty of new recipes to choose from over the weekends when I can spend some time in the kitchen with my family and that is giving me something to look forward to even with the mommy guilt. 

The plus side of mommy guilt

Mommy guilt visits me quite often as my full-time job often requires me to travel. 

As much as I hate the mommy guilt and would give anything to be with my family, I must admit there are a few perks to my travel.  One of them is the locations I get to visit on occasion.  Now I will admit traveling to warm, sunny places when it is cold and snowy at home is quite nice; however, it is not the same if your family isn't with you.  I tried to explain this to my family before I left on Wednesday morning, but all Bubby could say is "Mommy's going to Florida."

So as much as I miss my family, the plus side of my mommy guilt is that I'm in sunny Florida and this was my view during breakfast today.

So while I'm already suffering from mommy guilt, I will just add some more guilt as I'm not going to have a Farmer Fridays post tomorrow so stay tuned until next Friday. 

It's all about mommy guilt at this pig pen

I have always worked full-time away from the farm even though my love and passion in our family farm. 

I have been in my current position for almost 3 years. It allows me to work from home when I am not traveling. Thankfully because of where we live in relationship to my territory, I don’t spend many nights away from home usually. I do have a lot of early mornings and a few late nights, but this allows me to maximize my time with my family which is huge. Although I traveled very little with my former job as I worked in an office setting, I truly feel that I spend more time with my kids then I did then as I was gone for several hours every day.

Well due to some last minute meetings and a few other issues, my traveling is a little out of control for the next 6 weeks. Starting today, I will spend 2-4 nights away from home for the next 6 weeks which is resulting in some major mommy guilt for this mommy. It also makes me sad as I will miss the majority of the harvest season on the farm which is one of my favorite times of year.

Besides the time away from my family, the other major bummer is I am flying on different airlines when I have to fly and I am staying in a different hotel chain almost every week which means no major gains in the frequent flyer miles or hotel points which could have been huge for a family get-a-way.

Mommy guilt is not a fun thing and I know all moms suffer from it now and then.  I can only hope that I am doing the right thing for my children at this time and in the future they will understand. So in the mean time, I will relish my weekends with them as thankfully I am home every weekend and will ask The Farmer to send me picture updates thanks to modern technology.