Some days, coffee and Twizzlers aren’t strong enough to fix it.

Last night bled into this morning with Harper waking at 3 a.m. from a nightmare about a spider on her head. I was still hunched over my laptop, uploading a book to Ingram, running on fumes. By the time Harper went back to sleep, it was 6:30. I grabbed a couple of hours myself, only to wake up to… chaos, of the worst kind.

Business chaos.

The company we work with isn’t paying invoices on time. They fight me on late fees, and every unpaid day chips away at our profit. With their new buyout, everything’s changing. Some of the changes are smart, sure. But others? They make no sense at all. Jobs are being approved without funding, and it’s the small family businesses like ours that get caught holding the bag.

So now the hard questions hang over us: Do we keep holding on to faith and press forward? Do I go back to a traditional job… knowing it would mean public school, daycare, long trips away, and less laughter in our home? The thought of walking away from homeschool mornings, color guard evenings, and family walks rips at me.

Today my husband worked a 12-hour shift. I worked until 9:30 p.m. And when I finally sat down, I realized: we’ve become a charity that shouldn’t be.

And yet… there was Lynnlee, begging for “logic work” and sneakily asking when she can drink coffee. (Oops.) So I scooped her up and turned math into logic. Harper rode circles on her bike through the house, asking when dance class was. So we danced.

Dancing it out has been our thing since 2015. Bad day? Dance it out. Crushing moment? Dance it out. Turn on some T. Swizzle, crank the volume, and move like nobody’s watching.

Because some weeks, survival isn’t neat. It doesn’t come in tidy invoices or balanced bank accounts. It comes in the form of laughing with your kids when you feel like crying. It comes in the moments where the floor shakes with little feet and music, reminding you there’s still joy to be found, even in the middle of the mess.

Wednesdays may be the day “some girls wear pink.” But in this house? Wednesday is the day we dance it out. Then again, so is Thursday. And Friday. And every other day that ends in Y.