mommyinbonlee.com

Charlie and Maddie love looking back at my scrapbooks, and I enjoy flipping through the pages and showing them the things that Jason and I did before we had kids (Charlie and Maddie refer to this time as “the olden days We had a great school year in 2017. We walked a million miles at the fair that day, and I took notes in preparation for a big trip we had planned for December. We went to every park and we rode everything we could, and it was warm enough that we could swim in the resort pools during our down time.

I imagine myself busting out the window of the car, telling Jason to grab Charlie while I get Maddie, then swimming to the surface only to be tragically eaten by an alligator just feet from shore. My feet on a kayak tour through a maritime forest complete with snakes, fish, turtles, 2 feet of mud which a woman would immediately sink into up to her knees if she accidentally fell out of her kayak, and alligators (Our tour guide, Justin, denied this, but I later learned that an alligator had, in fact, been caught in this exact area only weeks earlier. I want to experience every single thing I can in this life, and I want my kids to experience every single thing they can. I want them to be brave and courageous and feel free to try new things, even if they are scared.

Before having children I was a high school teacher, and I got up at 5:30 every morning to spend time on a devotion, take long showers, drink coffee, watch the news, and just get my mind in order for the day. If it is at all possible for you to wake up a little earlier in the morning and have some time alone, just some time to get a jump-start on your day, it will make such a difference to you. This is one of my kids’ chores each morning, and they don’t understand why I feel it’s so important, but one day they’ll get it. I don’t have time to go to the gym (again, I don’t care to get up at 4:30 in the morning)

I don’t care if you have children or you don’t, if you work or you stay home with kids, if you are in school or retired, we all have TOO MUCH TO DO. After his response that he did “hear me” but that he was having a really busy day at work, I continued about my frustrating Monday, anxious and worried that I couldn’t get it all done. As I have been reflecting on this, doing some reading and trying some different things to help myself find some balance in the chaos, I have come up with some strategies that are working well for me (well…most of the time), and I feel led to share them with you. But I do hope you’ll check back in a couple of days and see what I’ve come up with, and I pray it will be a help to someone who is searching for a little balance.