Today I had big ideas of what I wanted to get accomplished.I started working hard at it and then I realized that I was getting a little stressed and before long I would be crabby and then the kids would get crabby too. I needed to step back and think about what was really important and what really needed to get done right now.
I don't know about you but this is something I face fairly often. I love to be busy and I love to get a lot done. My brain also works very fast coming up with enough ideas to keep many people busy. There have been many times that I have let all of my ideas bring me to the point that I am stressed and the whole household is grumpy. This is something that I realize is not at all good and so I have been working on how I deal with my goals. I am learning to recognize when I am starting to feel stressed and then step back and think about my priorities.
What I had planned to get done was this: Finish getting the Christmas letters out, bake bread, bake something to take to all the people on the street ( I was thinking cinnamon rolls), bake something to take to all our local friends (I was thinking possibly ginger bread families and a breakfast bread), Make Christmas cards to go with the baked goods,Do our schooling for the day (We have a morning singing, memorizing and prayer time and then I need to help them with their other lessons.), Watch two rowdy boys of some friends for the morning, Make sure that my house stayed nice and neat, Prepare my class for church tonight, and have a ladies bible study here this afternoon. I also wanted to get the boys' room cleaned for pictures to post today for works-for-me-Wednesday.
When I write out the list now I can realize how ridiculous it was to plan that much to do, but yet I do that. Thankfully I was able to realize the ridiculousness in time and instead of doing all that I thought about what my priorities were.
First of all I want to please God and if I am stressed and crabby that is not pleasing to Him. So I knew that some things needed to go.
Next I want to please my husband, He enjoys it when I get a lot done but mostly he wants a nice place to come home to, children that have been taught their school and a meal ready and waiting AND a happy wife. To satisfy that I did try to keep the house fairly neat and we did do school.
I also want to be a good Mother. That meant I had to stay relaxed and cheerful. So I worked on keeping my voice low and then I made sure I spent time with them.
I also had a commitment to teach class and have bible study so I made sure to have time for them. I also baked our bread for the week.
I did also work on getting our letters out. I am not finished with it yet, but I am not worrying about that. What I really like about letters is finding out what is going on in other's lives and possibly seeing pictures. I don't care if it comes before Christmas or not.
About the baking. I did not get it done. I had wanted to do that as a way to reach out to people that don't know the Lord and just to encourage others. I would still like to do it but I am not going to get stressed out with my family in order to do it. So if I have time I will but if not that is okay.
I just wanted to encourage you too, that when you are feeling stressed about all the many things going on in your life, to step back and figure out what is really important. It works for me!
