When life comes full circle

   So, a little over a year ago I had the rug pulled out from beneath me, so to speak. I can't remember if I ever wrote about it here and am too lazy to go back and check. The farm got auctioned off and I was scrambling to find homes for horses, tell all my boarders, and tell my lesson kids, get everything packed up and sold or stored.  This was all less than a week post partum. It was a rough moment in my life and honestly, in hind sight, I feel that I live a pretty charmed life if that is my worst trial. I'm still not sure how but my mom bought it back from the new owners, much to pretty much everyone's chagrin. I was angry, worried and then just kind of had to let it all go. I was able to be a full time stay at home mom. I enjoyed Ezra so much, my big kids were so sweet to each other and him. I spent time trying out homemade recipes, looking for ways to save money and be better at budgeting, I cleaned the house. These homemaker skills are not my strong suit and normally would stress me out but for some reason I felt like I was finally hitting my stride in the mom department. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids but all the things that come with keeping kids alive and husbands happy have taken work.
    As Chops was thinking about going back to school I knew we would need to supplement our income if we didn't want to accumulate massive amounts of student loans. My first thought, of course, was to teach lessons. But I needed to make sure that the farm was securely getting the mortgage paid. I slowly, very slowly, started working at the farm again getting it fixed up and ready to rent out. There were a handful of horses there but not too many. I kept giving myself a deadline that I could never accomplish and would get frustrated. I finally just put an ad on KSL to see if anyone would be interested. I had a guy call and come out and as I was showing him around it sunk in how much more I needed to do. It was overwhelming to think about.
     I mentioned to my cousin that I needed to rent out the barn and she brought it up to her daugher's riding lessson teacher who was boarding at a barn (Moonridge-Rachel this is for you, you would not recognize it anymore, it's sandwiched in next to an Instacare and a Walmart!) that had 90 horses. It was pretty crowded to say the least so she was very interested to move somewhere more quiet.  She came to check it out and loved it, even in its slightly dilapidated state. I had some work to do getting it ready and enlisted the help of Chops. He finally was out of elementary school and had some time before scout camp. I am so grateful for his help. We fixed broken boards in the arena and every single stall in the barn. We still need to paint and spruce up but it looks so much better already.
    Yesterday she brought 15 horses over! The barn is full, the runs are full. I also had a neighbor bring a horse he just bought and another guy brought two more last night that had to hang out in the arena until we made a spot for them. We went from 9 horses (with most of those being oldies just hanging out not actually paying board...) to 27. Its insane. I'm sure there will be some growing pains and problems to be worked out but I am incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to see the farm back in business. It's kind of ironic, because all the work I've been doing, which I love the feeling of accomplishment has a downside because I don't get to spend as much time with my kids. I look forward to getting things finished so I can get back to hanging out with my crazy kiddos. They really grow up so fast and while I'm not opposed to working in the slightest I do appreciate a bit more the blessing it is to stay at home.