Nice to have Mommy Back!

How does that saying go, "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy"?!

Ain't that the truth.

Momma needed some resuscitation this week..hence the picture here...

To say I've been "unhappy" doesn't exactly seem fitting...I've been sick as a dog is what I've been. All week. Since last Sunday night. Today was the first day I really felt "normal" again. And boy is Scott happy about that.


He walked in the house this afternoon, saw that the kitchen was picked up and that there were not stacks of dishes in the sink, or hordes of stuff sprawled across the counters and the kitchen table. The laundry was sorted in the living room, the cheerios vacuumed off the floor. Dinner was finished and hot on the stove and the girls had set the table.

"It's nice to have mommy back," he said with a grin.

It really is a compliment.

I know we can all beat ourselves up about what we are not doing right and how hard it is to keep things in order and flowing smoothly in a house with little ones, but, for the most part, for all of the moms I know, we are all trying our darned best. And our best is a really good thing.  We forget how much we actually do, how much we keep in order, how we keep the kids clean and fed and how those things are actually very important.

Until we get sick.

I'm not going to go into all of the reasons I think I got so sick-- perhaps I'll save them for my "Managing Momma Monday" post... I'll summarize by saying I had taken on WAY too much in my life outside of caring for our kids and the house and it sent me into a fast downward spiral in which I couldn't get out of bed for 3 days.

The thing is, it's easy to think "oh, it's just the house", "Oh, it's just food maintenance and preparation", "Oh, it's just taking care of two small children." But, it's not just any of those things. I had been minimizing all of those responsibilities in my mind and taking on a lot of other responsibilities I thought were more important (or at least that seemed more interesting) and that I thought I could handle because it was "just" all of those other little things I had going on in my life.

 In all sincerity, I wanted to do a lot of these other things; the workouts, the consignment sale I prepped clothes for and volunteered at, the newsletter I needed to write, the interviews completed for a couple of articles I was working on, the MOPS leadership seminar that I attended, the blogs I was trying to keep up with. I really did want to do all of those things. And, for the most part, they are all good things. The real honesty disclaimer here is that they are all non-tedious household things...non-cooking, non-cleaning, non-bum wiping things.

Unfortunately, filling your life with all of those other things doesn't mean the cooking, cleaning and bum wiping doesn't need to be done, it just means you have less energy to do it...and that sooner or later you burnout. Lesson learned.

 I've learned, the hard way, that we all have a limited supply of energy and stamina. When your kids and your house tend to occupy, oh, maybe 90% of the energy on many days it's not good to add other things into your life that require like 70% of your energy as well...it causes an energy crises...circuits go haywire, lights go out...the train falls of the track as Scott likes to say.

I say all of this in the most positive light because I really feel like God is teaching me a LOT about myself AND that I'm finally listening.

In conclusion, I'm happy to report that the train is back on track, but purposely burning a little less coal, chugging along a little slower, and carrying a few less cars and that is a very good thing.

One last note here...while it is sometimes hard to be a mom who is sick (that could be an entire post in and of itself!!!) because there are STILL kids who need to be taken care of no matter how many times you need to run to the bathroom...I did have the cutest darned doctor on the planet giving me a check-up earlier this week. She introduced herself as Dr. Ariel...and gave me the best check-up EVER!!

That's her VERY serious Doctor face. She said I was a good patient.