Keeping the Faith..

I am going to try not to get too spiritual or long winded (but I can't guarantee the long winded part) on you all here, but I wanted to share a few things that I learned this weekend.. it may not apply to you, but maybe one day it will and you will look back and remember.

I will admit it, I am not the person who has gone to church every Sunday. I am not the person who has even ever belonged to a church before. I have never been a member of a church. I have never really sat down and read the Bible. I don't know verses. I don't know much and have always felt a little silly calling myself a Christian when I feel like I know nothing. But lately I have felt the push.. something in me needs that and we have finally found a church that we love, and I think I am a baby Christian.. just learning how inspiring it all can really be.I am not trying to push my Faith or values on any of you.. I am just sharing my personal experience and how I realize how it all kind of melts together in the end.. the stories may have come out of the Bible.. but the meanings behind them are good for anyone to learn.

Being a WAHM is a tough job. I have worked in the corporate world.. I worked for Washington Mutual, Ameriquest, ADT Security and Continental.. all were wonderful wonderful jobs. I love working, I love my desk, I love my responsibilities and always found myself working my way up very quickly. I left it all behind when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Jake. I went on maternity leave and never went back. Now I loved being a SAHM, I loved when all I had to do was go on playdates, take Jake to the park, hang out with our friends, but I felt another calling. We were using cloth diapers and loving all of the new things that the world of cloth diapering was opening up to us. All of the wonderful respected WAHM's with their cute businesses (I had a local friend that owned a cloth diaper business where I first bought my diapers from and when I would come over I would see a few packages sitting at the door of her house and think to myself.. WOW.. I would love to have a business like that.. sending packages out every few days). All of the neat products out there that I never had seen before. All of the handmade wonderful stuff that was made with love by a WAHM. I started making Jake's wipe solution at home.. never bought any.. never tried any other's before (still haven't).. just found a recipe, tweaked it around a bunch an made my own. I let a friend use it and she suggested I start selling it and join their congo on HC. I did.. and Buddha Bunz was started. I used to call Jake my little 'Buddha Bunz' and months before the idea of starting my own business began I told Chris.. that would be a cute business name for someone in the cloth diaper world.. never realizing that I would actually be starting a business and using it! I really didn't know where BBz would go.. I can't sew so I can't make diapers.. I didn't have the start up cash to buy a bunch of diapers.. I could paint.. I could make candles.. but painting and candles are just too expensive to ship.. I didn't know where we were going, but I joined the congo.. I thought what the hey.. if I sell a few wipe solutions I can buy a diaper or two. Then I added wool wash. Then lanolin spray. Then boo boo spray.. and a year later wool dryer balls.. and I have never looked back.

That was 3 years ago this pasti July. Never in my dreams would I imagine that my little goal of sending out a few packages a week would turn into sending out 100's of orders.. having over 40 retailers and a band of Mama's behind me. I NEVER thought that this would be me.. that I would be a 'brand'.. that I would be able to send out a product that is so eco-friendly that actually HELPS people and that I would be so amazingly blessed.

Some of you know me, some of you don't. But if you knew me you would know that Buddha Bunz is my life. I wake up working and go to bed working.. if I am not at home working I am on my iPhone or trying to find some other way to work.. I think I have become a little obsessed. LOL. I never dreamed how much work being a WAHM would be. The e-mail's, the FB, the Twitter, the message boards, the phone calls, the paper work, the orders, the packing, the shipping, the updating, the postage, the filling in, the catching up, the thinking, the waiting, the reading, the wondering, the frustration.. and on top of it the thousands of balls to be made. Sometimes it can wear on you.. I am only human.. and a SUPER sensitive one at that so I take everything to heart.. Buddha Bunz is me.. and I am Buddha Bunz.. so yes sometimes it can wear you down a little. On top of the business I have a life.. I am a firefighter, I am the Secretary of the fire dept, I am the secretary of the PTF at my daughters school, I am always driving the kids around somewhere, soccer, church, football games, volleyball games (and living out in the country means driving means driving!!! LOL), I am a member of the Elk River Homemakers Club.. I have 2 wonderful children at home, a step son in Texas and a future hubby and lots of wonderful friends and family. My days just don't stop. I love it and wouldn't have it any other way though.. but I did trade a 40 hour a week job that I could leave.. to an 80+ hour a week job that I can never get out of my mind. I love my job and I wouldn't trade it for the world.. I have made so many friends through Buddha Bunz.. I never thought about all of the friends.. I ask you all for motivation on FB and WOW do I get it.. you are all always there for me and I never ever imagined that I would have so many people behind me.. little ole me. Talk about motivation!! I am able to stay home.. even though J is in preschool now he loves it.. he has so much more fun at school than at home with Mommy while she is in her office. But I am home.. I am here if they need me.. I am here to make phone calls, to bring forgotten lunches up to school.. to respond to a fire call if we get one and help someone in need.. to talk to Chris and my friends on the phone when they call.. or yes to occasionally take a random day off and do something fun and not having to worry about it (even though that doesn't happen much anymore LOL).

So being human I do get frustrated, I do get sad and like I mentioned I have felt the push to church. Yesterday while listening to the service I realized why.. the service was about Elijah and Ahab and about the drought and how Elijah knew it was going to rain.. he sent Ahab out to the sea to look for the rain. Ahab came back and told him.. there's no rain! Elijah told him to go back 7 times.. 7 times!!! Ahab did.. and he must have been worn out.. his faith must have grown so thin.. he must have thought Elijah was just a kook.. by the 6th time he must have walked up there and not seen the rain and thought.. hmm go figure.. no rain.. again.. he doesn't know what he is talking about. But he went that last time.. it probably took everything he had to make it to the sea to look.. and he must have thought.. there's no way anything is going to be there.. if it wasn't there the other 6 times why would it be here now.. and.. it was.. a tiny rain cloud.

What does this mean to me? Even if you aren't a Christian.. the moral is still true.. you have to have faith, even if that faith is just in yourself.. you have to keep pushing.. you have to keep moving forward. That is just what I needed to hear. And if it applies to me fighting a fire.. when I am worn out and feel like I can't keep going.. I can't hold onto the hose any longer.. I have to drop it.. I have to tell myself I can.. when I walk up to a car wreck and I am scared to death to look inside and see someone hurt I have to push myself to look to help to take their life in my hands.. to hold a hand.. to do scary things that I never dreamed that this little girl would be doing.. to keep going.. keep pushing.. I am saving a house.. I am saving a life.. when the kids get me frustrated because the chores aren't done or I am driving in circles around town.. that it's just life.. and maybe.. just maybe after the 7th time I tell her to do the dishes today she will get them done. Hehe.. Or if it is while I am at the funeral for a 14 year old boy.. I have to keep the faith. So I keep telling myself.. be like Ahab.. keep pushing.. keep going.. and don't loose Faith Melinda..



And I am going to also join in with Wooltopia and a few other retailers and ask that you spread the love this Monday morning.. check out our FB page for more details!