Hit a Wall
On Saturday afternoon, I hit a wall. Not literally. 🙂 After Mom and Dad left with Riley, I felt too tired to think, much less write. Kevin is so good at reading my face that he took one look into my eyes and suggested that I cease all the straightening up I was doing in the kids’ rooms and rest. I slept for two and a half hours and woke to the sound of coffee beans grinding. I do not deserve the man I’ve been given.:) Sunday, after we got home from worship and lunch, my sweet man sent me off to take yet another nap. For the second day in a row, I slept for two and a half hours.
I’ve been trying to figure out what it was about this Christmas that left all of us so exhausted. Mom and Dad are also worn out (Dad actually said he needed to go home to rest, but I think he said this in part because he’d spent three days with us fixing a leak in one of our bathrooms. Thanks again, Dad. Your help meant a lot!) Was it that September and October were a blur? At the end of August I had my worst case of strep (that case made #7) this year. In September, I had a tonsillectomy. The recovery took much longer than I expected, and Mom and Dad walked through the entire journey with us. In October, we lost Kevin’s mom. Mom and Dad took care of the kids while we traveled to West Virginia for the funeral. Is it any wonder that Thanksgiving came much too quickly? Everything feels so compressed this year.
It wasn’t just this way for me though. Every friend I spoke with during the Christmas season felt as harried and out of time as I. Kevin and I even tried to slim down our commitments and simplify things. Despite all of our efforts, not a single day on our calendar before Christmas was empty. I guess now, I’m catching up. In the process, I’m trying to figure out how to do it better next year. Will starting earlier help? I am trying to figure out how to offer the best of myself to those I love, how to do the important things and let go of the rest, how to take care of myself so that I have something to give while sacrificing myself for the good of others. It seems as though working this out is a never-ending quest for me. If you have wisdom to offer, please send it my way.:) In the meantime, I’ll take a nap everyday if I have to, while Kevin is home and willing to offer me the rest.
