A day in my life depends on which Rachel I get to be that day. I am a mom always, a fishing expert a few times a week, and an actual fisher-lady whenever I get the chance. In general though, my day starts pretty normal. I wake up before I want to, and trudge my way to the coffeemaker. Of course, I am asked 200 questions from my kids before I make it the 60 feet from my room to the kitchen. Ahhh coffee. It is the nectar of life! During the week I take my oldest to school and come back home to do all the mom things with my girls. While I am home, I also hop on the computer and help whomever needs it here on Curated.

Speaking of Curated, when I get on the computer, I help any one of my customers that need it. I don’t have to be “On Shift” to help them. I go through all of my messages and see if anyone has questions. Oh, looks like Frank is asking about a trout rod! No problem at all, let me just suggest a St Croix Mojo Bass rod. What is that you say? It’s not a “trout” rod? That’s ok! The rod works awesome for trout too and is sensitive and comfortable to use. After I send over my suggestions to my customers, I wait for them to ask any questions or try to really hone-in on what they are looking for. Sometimes it takes a few tries. Sometimes you get new information as you go, and that’s ok! This part of my day is fun for me. I really like fishing, and looking at anything fishing related, so the fact that I get to shop for fishing gear and not spend my own money is a win-win!

After I help everyone that needs it at the time, I continue to do the “mom things”. Now let’s just pretend it’s the weekend. I wake up the same way, haha. After I make my way to the coffeemaker, my husband and myself figure out the plan of action for the day. Will it be a hike? A visit to family? Or my personal favorite, fishing!! Luckily for my husband I like fishing more than he does. So, we load up our gear, our kids, and pet the cat good-bye and hit the road. Living in Central Oregon we are offered numerous places to fish at. Trust me, all of them are beautiful, and have good fishing. We get to our destination and un-load the truck, tie our favorite lures on, and try our luck. My favorite is an all-gold Panther Martin, and my husband’s is a yellow with red dots and a silver blade Panther Martin. I always out fish him.

If one of us is lucky enough to hook-up to a fish, we try to pass the rod over to one of the kids and try to help them. I think it is important to include your kids in what you do. They are much more interested in what you do than you realize. Seeing the excitement of a child reeling in a fish is priceless. While we are out fishing, we like to walk around, and my daughter likes to find rocks and pick them up. I think we get this from my father, he is always finding some neatly shaped rock and putting it in his pocket.

After we get the truck loaded back up, we set up our tent for the night. We have a good meal. One where we usually have to ask the kids more than once to eat their food, lol. One of our favorite things right now is to make a little fire in our pit and roast some marshmallows and make some s’mores while watching the stars. It’s nice to turn your brain off and just look at the sky. It is so big, and we are so small it seems. Sometimes we have the argument of what kind of light just went streaking across the sky. Hey, you never know!

In between doing all of this I will check back on my customers and see if they needed anything while I was gone. Looks like Frank needed a rod at 7’1” instead of 6’10”, no problem Frank, I’ve got you! Look, it’s perfect! We got that rod dialed in and now Frank is on his way to fishing a river near his house.

After fighting my children, who are acting like rabid dogs at this point, to brush their teeth, I tuck them in and tell them goodnight. This is the time of the day where I get to relax a little. Hey, it might be 9pm, and I may only get an hour or two of it. But it’s quiet and I take it!

My husband and I try to spend some time together when the kids are sleeping. Sometimes this is hard. We both get tired, it’s like we are 80 years old sometimes, haha. He works pretty hard during the week, and with the baby I get little to no sleep. But we try and watch a movie, a show, or play a game together. Don’t let him know I told you this, but every now and then I talk him into using a face mask. Nothing wrong in taking care of yourself when you can! Come on guys, I know you like being pampered too! It’s ok, it can be our little secret!

When Blaine falls asleep on the couch while watching a movie, I make my way back over to the computer and check in with my customers again. This time I notice that someone is asking for a very specific type of reel. So, I check our inventory and see what we have. I notice that it isn’t something we have on our end, but we have a few partner sites that I can check. This particular reel is pretty hard to pin down. It seems like everywhere I look the size I want is sold out. My customer was really hoping to get one in silver too, but looks like all I can find is black. I find one site that might just have it, but it will require a phone call to see what they have in their inventory. Sometimes it can take a lot of searching to find the right gear for someone. Sure, it isn’t my money I am spending, but the person it does belong to worked really hard for that. I don’t want to suggest something unless I know it will be a good fit for them.

After looking online for a couple hours for this reel, I decide to call it a night. I will call the company in the morning and pick back up where I left off. When you sign up for Curated, the expert who is helping you isn’t someone who works a 9-5 in an office. We are real people with family, hobbies, and usually other jobs. We weave this sweet little gig into our daily life. Coming and going as needed. We work pretty hard to find the right thing. That is a big difference from when you go into the store. I can’t knock being able to feel what you want to buy first. It can be hard to put your trust into a stranger and let them decide what you are going to buy, if you do buy. We really have your best interest at heart! A lot of the time we become friends with our customers too!

My life may feel like a pinball machine at times, where I am bouncing from one paddle to another. I wear many different labels, and do many different things all in one day. While I don’t get to strictly fish all day every day, I think that maybe it makes it feel more special when I do get to go. Nothing lifts my soul more than being close to water. Even if I am not catching fish. The water is always fine!

Tight lines!