So, Where Have I Been?
By Ashley Schausten
If you've been wondering whether I fell off the face of the earth — I didn't. I just fell into the gap between my toolbox and a litter scoop, and it turns out that gap is deep.
Here's the honest version: I haven't been as active here because I've been swamped. I run my own handyman and remodel company, which is its own full-time, full-throttle thing, and I've also been trying — emphasis on trying — to hold down some semblance of a normal life. You know. Eat a vegetable. Stand in the sunlight occasionally. Remember that I own a vacuum.
And then, on top of all of that, there are the kittens. Who, shockingly, do not care that I have a remodel deadline. They need their weight checks. Their feedings. Their socialization. Their growth checkmarks, which I track like a tiny, furry pediatrician, because every single one of them has to hit the right milestones at the right time to grow into the healthiest, happiest house pet they can be. Miss a milestone and you're playing catch-up. Miss too many and you've got a kitten who's behind.
So that's where I've been. Crawling under a client's sink at 9 a.m., syringe-feeding a bottle baby at noon, taping drywall at 3, doing a kitten weight check at 6, and then lying awake at midnight wondering if I remembered to order more kitten milk replacer. (I did not. I never do. I remember at midnight. Every midnight.)
I'm not complaining — please hear me. I chose all of this. Every chaotic, sleep-deprived, sawdust-covered, kitten-haired second of it. But I wanted to be honest about why it's been quieter around here than usual, because the silence wasn't nothing happening. It was too much happening.
I'm finding my rhythm again. The posts are coming back. The updates are coming back. And the kittens — the kittens are thriving, hitting their marks, getting chubby and brave and ready for their people. That part, at least, never stopped.
