REAL Essentials for This Tired Mom

I am trying to focus on the essentials. The REAL ones. In a practical language that my practical brain can understand.

As the day progresses, my main priority is attitude. Smiling, singing, patient, helpful, teaching, humble, prayerful attitude. Ok, that order is a little tall, so the simpler attitude would be peaceful and gracious.

The bulk of my day is spent responding to needs or hiding for breaks (haha):
Prepping meals, feeding kids, changing diapers, dressing children, refereeing conflicts, keeping the laundry going and kids out of trouble, keeping the budget up to date, paying bills, tending the garden (barely), picking up the house, helping Anna with math, etc.

(Ooh, right now, I’m scared of starting a full school load with the kids in the fall. I trust some time and rest and slow prep this summer will have me ready by September. Stressing about things in the future is pretty much not allowed. If I feel something stressing me much… I drop it. It will have to wait. Essentials first.)

Daily priorities:
Laundry
Dishes
Dinner
School
Prayer
One on one time with kids
Exercise
Bible time
Nap or Quiet time (NOT computer)

The first six are my original list. I have not been successful in dedicated one on one time with the kids, so that is a goal of mine. And it DOES feel stressful, so I may have to change it somehow. But, parenting is just about on the tippity top of my main, high-level list, so I think it deserves its spot. The other three things have been mostly not happening up until this month, I have begun exercising daily (early AM walks) and making sure quiet time happens, though keeping away from the computer remains challenging. For Bible time, I have been surviving by remembering God’s promises to me and reading a few verses that are posted around the house or that Brian sends me in a text. I would like to give more of my mental energy to the Lord’s Word.

I mentioned my main, high-level list. It looks like this, in order of priority:

Take care of myself
Take care of my husband
Take care of my kids
Maintain friendships
Support those in need
Maintain less involved relationships

I have had quite a lot of less involved relationships since we moved a couple years ago. A couple of those have developed into deeper friendships, but I have worked hard for a long time on those less successful relationships and I need to let them go. I also need to let go of feelings of responsibility for those in need… well, more or less. That is, I need to put appropriate amounts of energy into keeping myself from sliding further into a place of desperate need so that I have more to give. And I don’t mean money. I mean emotional and mental health and well being. I have experimented with blessing others in order to be less self-centered and to release self pity. It was a good exercise and I should keep doing it. But I need to let go of those situations I don’t have resources for.

Ok… I know this isn’t complete or concise. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.