I have three sisters-in-law. I love them all very much. One lives far away, and I don’t get to see her often enough. The other is full of “natural wisdoms” and has a wicked sense of humor, and then there’s the sister-in-law who I always considered to be the matriarch of my husband’s family.

This sister-in-law, the “matriarch” (although she has kind of given up that title now) gave me the BEST gift this week.  Because I pulled her son’s Buddhist wedding together for her, she came over and cleaned and organized my kitchen for me!  She spent 9 hours cleaning out my cupboards and going through eigtheen years’ worth of stuff.  She found things I didn’t even know I had!  And the food I had tucked away all over the place!  OMG!  I had no idea I had so much canned fruit, etc.

You know what she said to me?  You go write.  You go do what you do best.  I love to clean and organize and couldn’t write a book if I tried, but you can.  Go do it. I love her!  She opened a bag of BBQ potato chips, a bottle of white wine and went to work.  She is amazing.

We made a box for the food bank, tossed a lot of stuff (she wouldn’t let me keep three can openers or two tea kettles) and she’s coming back next week to trade my food and dish cupboards.  My husband orginally put the stuff in the shelves and I’ve never re-arranged it.  My SIL is going to switch stuff for me while I’m at the day job.

I have had six glorious weeks off.  I wrote three books and have an offer to submit the fourth (partially completed) directly to the editor of the publisher when it’s ready.  But soon, I must return to my day-time persona as a school secretary.  The real me is here, however.  Right here at www.darragha.com.

I truly appreciate having a day job with benefits and umpteen days off per year, but I love staying home and writing, too.  Someday, I hope to find a balance between the two.  Someday, I will find a balance