Shelly Says: The Easy Way Is Under Construction

June 25, 2025

If my mom had a motto, it’d be: The easy way is under construction.

She never said those words exactly, but she lived them. And when you're a kid watching your mom juggle jobs, bills, groceries, and your school project that involves glitter and engineering? It sticks with you.

Let’s rewind a second.

I was born in Alabama, but we moved to Huntington Beach when I was one. My parents split up when I was around eight. That’s when things got tight. Like, “your birthday gift is also your back-to-school shoes” kind of tight. But somehow, my mom made it all work. I never went without what I needed. And I always knew I was loved, even when dinner was boxed mac and cheese with a side of “don’t touch the thermostat.”

She worked full time, took on side gigs, and still made time to show up at my school plays and science fairs. I once asked her how she did it all. She just shrugged and said, “You do what you gotta do.”

That’s when I started to understand the whole easy way under construction thing.

It’s not that life has to be hard. It’s that sometimes, if you’re trying to do right by yourself and the people you care about, you’re going to run into a few road closures. Maybe a detour. Definitely some potholes. And probably a cone or two you didn’t see coming until it scraped the bottom of your car.

And when that happens, you get creative.

My mom sold handmade earrings for extra cash. I’ve mowed lawns, walked dogs, and (briefly) taught paddleboard yoga before a rogue pelican ruined that dream. Point is, sometimes the “extra” doesn’t come from extra time or energy—it comes from squeezing possibility into weird little cracks in your schedule.

But here’s the real lesson: when you’re juggling a million things, you’ve got to know which balls you can drop.

I used to think being “on top of it” meant doing everything. All the time. Perfectly. But you can’t keep everything in the air. Something’s going to fall. And the trick isn’t catching every single ball—it’s knowing which ones are glass, and which ones are rubber.

Sometimes the laundry sits a few days. Sometimes you say no to a happy hour. Sometimes you eat cereal over the sink so you can call your best friend before she falls asleep. And yeah, sometimes the side hustle turns into a full hustle and you forget where you left your sunglasses for three days. (They were in a shoe in the closet. Don’t ask.)

But when you know what actually matters? You figure it out.

I still live by that lesson. I run a business now. Some days it feels like I’ve got a million things flying at me: client calls, barking dogs, inventory that’s late, water bowls that got knocked over in a stampede. But I keep the important stuff going. And when I drop something? I try not to beat myself up. I just pick it up, see if it’s cracked, and move on.

Life’s not easy. But it’s workable. With enough duct tape, snacks, and a little perspective, you can patch your way through the detours.

We don’t have shirt that says: “The easy way is under construction.” Not yet, anyway. In the mean time, consider our collection of mugs. They pair beautifully with over-scheduled calendars, second cups of coffee, and whatever hustle you’re managing this week.