Balance

April Hearts at Home Blog Hop topic: Balance

Mary Byer's Book 'The Mother Load' asks the question: "If you are taking care of your kids, who is taking care of you?". So, who does take care of you? I know my answer would often be "not me". Even secular movies depict the battle we moms face when it comes to juggling everything we have going on in our lives: work, family, marriage, friends... our list of responsibilities is endless.

But this is something that I have been working on. I'm tired of mommy burnout. I want to find ways to get refreshed so that I can be caring and loving to my children instead of grumpy and complaining.

I'm always looking for ideas to help me create a better balance in my life. Around the holidays I found this great article on Mothering Magazine's website about 5 Fixes for Crazy Busy Syndrome. The article recommends doing the following:  1. Renounce the How-Does-She-Do-It-All-Disease. 2. Shun Those Voices.  3. Screw Tradition.  4. Rethink Gift-Giving.  5. Last Resort. (you have to read the full article to get this last one).

Sometimes all you can do it make a couple of small changes to relieve some of the (sometimes self inflicted) stress of motherhood. I have been trying to be intentional about creating healthy habits like: working out with a friend a couple times a week, planning play-dates that are as much for the moms as they are for the kids, going out with my girlfriends 1-2 times a month, being deliberate about planning date nights with my husband, doing a devotional and keeping a prayer journal...

What about you? What do you do to create balance in your life?

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. - 3 John 1:2