I have found the $1,000,000 secret!!

Since I have become a mom (and also many times before) I have wondered to myself....how do people do it? By "it" I mean, care for a child, keep the house clean, and control the piles of dirty clothes/sheets/towels that over take the laundry room, etc? Oh yeah, and work part time...and other stuff...

I've spent a while now in this constant state of "overwhelmedness"... you like that word don't ya? Definition? "Overwhelmedness"- a state of feeling overwhelmed a lot! I love something that my sister-in-law said last week, "When you have a 3 year old, you don't have time to clean up after them...and when you have a baby you don't have time to clean up after yourself." So true! Many times I wondered how my house gets so messy when its usually just me here? Here's how: if Addisyn will relax for 5 minutes in the exersaucer then I have a second to make myself a bowl of soup and a sandwich for lunch.... BUT then she'll probably blow out a poop in her pants and "ta-da" the dishes are either left on the counter or thrown in the sink to take care of that... and it starts!

(Pause the writing of this post to put Addi down for a nap)

So anyways, this week I have found the key to keeping everything under control...

ARE YOU READY!?!?

Here goes...

Don't rest! ...EVER! Don't be deceived into thinking you get "me time." You don't. If I am not constantly doing some sort of cooking, cleaning, laundry, diaper changing, dog feeding task then I get behind. When is my time to rest? Most nights I am able to rest from 10:30pm-1:00am, 1:30am - 5am, 6am- 7am (Addi has had a cold so she hasnt been sleeping well). I know that this is all said sarcastically but I'm pretty much serious! That's how it seems! Every moment that I am in my house there is something that needs to be done!

So back to overwhelmedness... this week I was rocking Addisyn before bed and I just started crying. I cried out to God and my prayer was very simple... "God, i'm weary"... Now tired is a physical state, but weary is physical, spiritual, mental and emotional exhaustion. I immediately heard the still, small voice of my creator "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest!" Now as I mentioned before, the kind of rest where you put in a movie, take a bubble bath and then nap if you want to is not so practical anymore.

So the point of my ramblings is this... I am constantly in a state of "doing" as a wife and mom. But my prayer is that MY SPIRIT WOULD BE AT REST. God is revealing his love to me in such an awesome way right now and even though I may go to bed "tired" I am being refreshed everyday by an amazing God who always meets us where we're at!

Practically how does this work for me? Playing worship music! Meditating on "tidbits" from the word! Spending time praying during the day. I mean, you can be thanking God for His goodness while you're taking a shower or changing a diaper! Most importantly by not letting the devil discourage me! By changing my mentality to "be at rest" in the midst of my busyness I find that in the midst of the mundane I find joy!!!