Monday, May 7, 2012

Saying No to Good and Yes to Great

After my kids go to bed at night, I see the two or three hours before my own bedtime as a chance to catch up around the house.  By nature, I am a busy person and tend to be moving constantly.  So when I am faced with what to do with those precious hours all to myself, I tend to think crazy cleaning and organizing type of thoughts.  For example, I might think it is the perfect time to:
* Fold the five loads of laundry that have piled up in baskets along the wall in my bedroom.
* Scrape the dried toothpaste from my kids' bathroom sink and wipe their greasy hand prints from the mirror.
* Organize my closet or the pantry or that one kitchen drawer full of scissors and paper and pencils and ketchup packets and other miscellaneous stuff.
* Finally mop the kitchen floor because only God knows when it was cleaned last.  And there have been a few spills since then....
* Start a project like going through pictures or recipes.
* Clean out our minivan, being prepared to face a mountain of crushed goldfish under Lucas' car seat.

I have to admit, I have been thinking about checking any number of these things off my to-do list tonight.  It feels so great to have something accomplished.  But, tonight I am battling those darn springtime allergies and am feeling just a bit tired. A bit off my normal game.  And I didn't sleep well last night, so I feel sleepy as well.  And I really just want to crawl in bed and read awhile to relax.  So tonight I am saying no to the good things that I could do and saying yes to the greatest thing I could give myself tonight-- and that is REST.
Because when I am rested, I am a better wife, mother and friend.  I feel like I can handle the daily stresses I face and not feel overwhelmed.

My kitchen drawer can certainly wait another day, and the kids will just spit more toothpaste in the sink tomorrow morning.

4 comments:

Maria Rose said...

I hear that. I plan to 1) WIn a game of Farkle. 2) Watch a movie. 3) sleeeeeeeep!

affectioknit said...

Good for you!

Have a lovely day!

Rachel said...

love the way you put it, no to good and yes to great. because it really does affect how we are with our family! hope you are feeling better today! how about boo to allergies!

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