The winds of change blew through here last month. I felt it. I knew it. But I didn’t expect so much to happen in my own world.

While plenty occurred in politics over the past month, things in my corner of the world significantly shifted on a social, personal, and professional level.

I’ve always been one to let the wind blow me in the right direction, but this was more of a storm. First, our homeschooling co-op experienced a serious rift with our Board of Directors. The last of the founding members was set to leave soon and two other board members struggled with their positions due to changes in leadership style.

This exploded at the end of July and now our co-op has split. I walked away with others who expressed transparency concerns and now about half of the families are expected to help us form a new co-op.

This was not an easy decision. Our co-op is our main lifeline. We rely on each other and socialize our children together. The families offer each other support when others just don’t understand our struggles and the demands we constantly face.

Then we had an insane family emergency. I’m not sure I will ever write about the full details publicly, but my youngest nearly drowned and I had to revive her. It was the most horrific experience of my life (and I say that having been abused and homeless before).

She is fine now and still like a fish in water. It’s taken me longer to get past than her. But everything is okay now and I have plenty of awesomeness to celebrate instead of dwelling on what happened.

Now, this last one isn’t nearly as earth-shattering as the potential of losing a child or having our social world rocked, but my local news beats have been switched around.

That comes with mixed feelings. I’m excited to move onto larger areas and dive into fresh topics, but I also spent over a year engrossing myself in stories covering an area full of people who felt as if no one was listening to them.

Leaving isn’t easy. But I did what I could to deliver accurate unbiased stories and they either helped or they didn’t.

Everything always happens at once. I’m used to craziness and have been through enough that I know nothing can break me, but having all of this happen, one right after the other, was the most obnoxious domino effect. I’m writing about it because I want everyone to know that no matter what happens in life, we have the power within ourselves to keep going.

Too often I hear people make excuses. Especially writers. They look at me and ask how I do it with five kids and constant projects. The honest truth: I don’t let anything stop me. I abhor laziness and fill most of my days from start to finish. I show up for my family AND get my jobs done. It’s exhausting, but hard work offers many rewards. I take breaks when they are needed–like after coming home from the hospital grateful that my baby didn’t have water in her lungs.

You have to give yourself time to live too. But balance is the single most important thing needed to do it all. Put in the work, live well, and do what you can.

That’s all I ever do and all I can ever ask of anyone else.

So get out there and keep going.