Archives for April 2017

[This post may contain affiliate advertising, which costs you nothing beyond the cost of a product or service you may choose to purchase, but helps defray the costs of the blog. Please don’t feel under any obligation to purchase anything that I recommend, but know that I appreciate it if you do!]

Feeding people

I hope you all had a good Easter (and enjoyed some good Easter music)! We weren’t able to be with family, but did spend the afternoon enjoying fellowship with some friends from church. And of course, we had a large variety of food, which is necessary to celebrate any holiday properly.

Feeding people is one of my talents and something I enjoy and take pride in. And that can be my downfall as well.

The feeding of the four

I can understand the concern Jesus’ disciples had when they had a large crowd of people and food was miles away; their hands grow sweaty and hearts start racing as they realize it’s lunchtime, they have five thousand people to feed, and… only one kid thought to bring food?!? (A boy after my own heart. If I had been there, I probably would have had a few fish and loaves hiding in the folds of my robe, but would have hoarded them to give to my five-year-old so she wouldn’t complain about being hungry and I could listen to Jesus in peace).

Lunchtime at my house often feels like this. Fear and trembling. And I only have to feed the four of us.

Sanity Saver #1: Menus

Lunch at my house does not consist of everyone eating the same thing. Everyone gets to choose, within reason, what they’ll eat. I also have a five-year-old and an eleven-year-old who both have type 1 diabetes. They get shots every meal based on how many carbohydrates they plan to eat. So not only do we have to know what’s for lunch, we have to count the carbs and calculate the insulin needed (the 11-year-old does most of her calculations, but still needs some guidance).

For a few weeks after my oldest began insulin shots, lunchtime was chaotic and miserable. Kids were hungry and asking what to eat and how many carbs it had. As I would start to figure out carbs for one kid, I would get sidetracked by another question, and totally forget where I had left off with the first kid.

I knew that if each kid had a menu of choices that they liked, it would eliminate the need for me to explain what was available for lunch. Every. Single. Day.

So one morning when the kids were occupied with a project (part of my Sanity Saver from last week!) I went on Canva (a great free site where you can use professional quality graphics and just insert your text) and spent way too long looking for the right blend of cute graphics and functional layout. Then I spent close to an hour just typing in foods that my kids enjoy. After I finished the first menu, I saved it and used it as the template and tweeked the menu selections for the next kid, so each kid ended up with their own personal menu. I grouped foods into categories so they could see that there is something from each food group that they enjoy (even if I did have to add zucchini cake, greens protein shake, and corn as the only vegetables my oldest will eat).

Below is a sample of my menus. If you create an account at Canva, you can even edit this and personalize your own menus.

Sanity Saver #2: Prepping my meals for the week

I found that while I was helping everyone else get their meals ready, mine wouldn’t be ready until they were finished. And then I was tired and grouchy and didn’t feel like making something healthy, so I was eating late and not very well.

I went to Amazon and bought some Reusable Meal Prep Containers that were just for my lunches. I try to make five salads for the week, (with lettuce, spinach, other veggies,  nuts or seeds, sometimes dried cranberries (yum!), turkey or chicken, and dressing) then I can grab one and eat, sometimes before my kids so I’m all done and can read to them while they eat.

The combination of menus for the kids and pre-made lunches for me has made a big difference in my stress level and the amount of time that we spend just doing lunch every day. Is there anything that you prep ahead of time that makes a difference in how your meal times go? Is there anything you would like to begin preparing ahead of time? How would it help you? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

It’s Easter week. As I’ve been writing this week about my sanity savers, I can’t pass up the chance to talk about music. Sometimes when we’re having a grumpy morning, I pull up my YouTube or Amazon music lists and put on some good music to reorient our hearts to God’s truth.

My husband did all the hard work for us this week and created an Easter playlist on YouTube. You can find the list on his blog here. I think #5 and #8 are my favorites. May these songs help you soak in Jesus love for you this Easter season.

What’s your choice?

Does your life always go smoothly, just the way you want it to? Yeah, me neither.

We may face physical, emotional or spiritual difficulties or plans just change. We may not have much control over those things, but we do get to choose how we respond. Will we get mad and curse the difficulties or will we readjust and do what we can to make things at least somewhat better?

An astute friend said to me the other day, we all get stuck. We just get stuck in different ways. Lately I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and stuck in bad attitudes (my own and my kids’) and stuck in self-pity. Perhaps I’m even depressed. But I try to keep moving forward.

So this week I’m writing about some things that have helped me stay sane over the past few months.

Fight for uninterrupted time

I’ve had some very enlightening conversations this week. A friend was telling me that her kids usually have a two hour chunk of time during the afternoon where they have to entertain themselves because she works from home. The thought of having two hours to myself sounded so wonderful! I’ve enforced quiet time with my kids before (which they don’t usually enjoy), but don’t do it consistently. I realized that there are a couple of reasons why I need to incorporate more time into my week where my kids entertain themselves. They wouldn’t even have to be quiet, I would just appreciate a bit of uninterrupted time.

First, as a stay at home mom, I don’t necessarily have “work” that I get paid for, but I do have “work” that requires some attention and uninterrupted time (not to mention a blog!) My dining room table has been covered in paperwork and projects that have been neglected. I can’t completely blame this on the kids. Some of this was pure procrastination on my part. But I knew that I needed to be able to focus on it, and waiting until the kids were in bed when I was also tired was not the best plan. So one afternoon this week I told the girls that I had work to do and that they needed to find something to do. For the most part, they did really well and left me alone.

Besides “work” I also need rest and downtime away from children. I was with some other homeschooling moms this week who were saying that they just love being with their kids and can’t bear the thought of sending them to school for eight hours a day. Um, that’s not me. I frankly was fine with my children being in school and away from me. When we began homeschooling, I insisted that I needed a night off each week to have some time away from them. And I do that consistently. But I’m finding it’s not enough.

I had not been giving myself​ permission to have time to be alone and quiet in the middle of the day. This week, I changed that. Some days I don’t get that quiet time because we have activities going on. But the days we’re home I’m fighting for that time. It’s a sanity saver, even if it’s only 20 minutes.

Replace guilt and lies with truth

When I’m feeling discouraged and depressed, I tend to spiral into negative thoughts that are not true.  I can feel guilty for asking for that time for myself. I can feel guilty for not being available to my kids. I can feel like it’s too hard to ask for them to occupy themselves. I can feel like it’s not really important to take care of myself.

But those feelings are lies. I am a better mother when I take time to rest or relax. My kids don’t need me every single minute of the day, and if they really do need help, I’m still home. It’s good for my kids to have to finish chores without me or to create their own fun. No one else is going to make sure that I take care of myself, so I need to make it happen. This is not selfishness on my part. This is actually about being refreshed to be a better servant to those around me.

Make time to rest

My children are all relatively independent and able to take care of themselves for short periods of time. Sometimes I’ve had chores or schoolwork for them to finish, sometimes I let them play on their iPads, sometimes they just found other things to do. But they’re not going to go tell me to go rest. This is something I must request and make happen.

Some of you have younger children or situations that make taking time for yourself more challenging. I would encourage you to fight for that time. To do what it takes to refresh yourself. Maybe ask a mom friend to watch your kids so you can go home and read a book or take a nap (the best part of this is that it usually helps the mom watching the kids, because they all go off and play and she can get her work done too!) Maybe put a CD player in the kids’ room and have them listen to music or a book on CD and have their own quiet time. Maybe the kids get to watch a TV show while you rest. Just find a way to give yourself some uninterrupted time alone!

If you have creative ways that you find time to refresh yourself, please let us know in the comments!