I grew up on my grandmother’s chicken soup. My grandmother passed away over twelve years ago, and for years before that was not well enough to cook. Based on a memory, and some questions to my mom, who had often grocery shopped for her, I decided to attempt to make it.

As I was chopping celery, I noticed a voice-mail on my cell phone. It must have rang while I was upstairs looking at old photos with my daughter, one of her new favorite things to do. It was a bride who I met with earlier this month, checking to see if I was still available for her wedding date. I propped my daughter in front of her favorite cartoon (something I try not to do too often) and returned the call while stirring ingredients into my crock pot.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about taking my daughter to a meeting with the wedding coordinator at Portland Ecotrust, and how important I feel it is to separate business and family. Emee, a local wedding and event coordinator, commented. She said, “I definitely try to keep mama time and biz time separate too, but it’s not always possible”. Since then I’ve realized that while I do reserve dedicated work/ client time, the rest of my life is typically a blur of the two worlds.

My little one gets dragged along for business errands all the time. Just in the last week alone, I previewed a wedding venue with her by my side, took her to the post office to renew my box, back again to ship a package, and downtown to my hubby’s office so that I could meet with a client in the afternoon. We go to Staples for supplies, pick up gear at Pro Photo, and scout locations all the time.

I get clients from Facebook friends, and tweeting socially. I’m often in the middle of hanging out with my family, and step away to respond to a wedding inquiry. Having worked on-call jobs for years (which is another story) before starting my own business I’m used to the blend of personal and business. I guess I am so used to it that I didn’t even realize that was how I lived.

Is it good? Is it bad? For me it works. For others it might drive you nuts. I think to run a successful small there has to be some blend of the two lives. Especially running a creative business, as a photographer I put so much of myself into everything I do. I can’t imagine my business being a completely separate entity.

So the soup – it’s a bit mushy but otherwise good. Mackenzie even ate a little bit. Does it taste like my grandmother’s chicken soup? Not quite, but when I opened the crock pot lid it smelled just like it, which made me smile. It’s amazing I can remember a smell from fifteen years ago.

As I sit here in my pajamas on this rainy day, about to hit Publish, I hear a sweet little voice, “mommy”, coming from the next room.