Overwhelmed after the Holidays

A lot of the time I don’t think about how busy my life is, I just do it. I think of the good that’s in my life and I know the sacrifice is worth it! But sometimes it all catches up to me. I realize just how hard it is to do anything. I can be a good mom, or a good wife, or a good neighbor, or a good house keeper, or a good sister, daughter, friend…but rarely can I be any two of those at the same time. And I definitely can’t be them all at the same time!

If there’s not much to do in any one of those categories, I can do small amounts of each “person” I’d like to be in a day and I feel good about that. The problem comes when I let one really slide and nothing I seem to do is enough. I was sick in bed on Christmas Eve, Christmas I tried to be present with my family and enjoy this fun day, and the day after Christmas Jacob was sick in bed all day. This left the housework very behind, and when you add the fact that we have more presents to find homes for and Christmas decorations to come down and 10 children on Christmas break wanting to have a fun time with Mom or each other, I just don’t have any time for anything and definitely not everything!

Experience tells me to just concentrate on the most important thing and everything else will fall into place when it needs to. But how!? I want to be the fun mom, good wife and friend, but also NEED to get some order to our home!

So the plan that came to me, no doubt personal revelation from a Heavenly Father who loves His daughter and wants her to succeed! Make a list of everything that needs to be done in the house. Make it smaller tasks; instead of writing: clean the bedroom, write: pick up the books, put the shoes away, put the blankets on everyone’s beds. Then enlist the help of my small army, the small tasks will seem easier and a big list will be a challenge all of us can face together. Finally find out what they want from today and use that as a reward for a cleaner home and a mom who is no longer drowning. Then get to work! (And play afterwards!)

How dido you respond to being overwhelmed!? Last night I went to bed earlier because I couldn’t fathom doing it all, mentally and physically drained. This morning I have a plan and hope that everything will be ok! So I guess I do a little of both, shut down and get to work, and I’m just hoping my plan and enthusiasm will save the day and week!