Rest

My short guide to simplifying life:

1. Cook and freeze meals for every day of the week for 2 months.  Each week is the same.  You’d better like it.  I have 13 meals of curry and 14 pans of cornbread.  All frozen.  Ready to take out.  Result:  Less time each day cooking, more time each day resting.

2. Get rid of things we don’t use or want.  Now, this is a constant undertaking, and one that will never fully see completion.  It’s ok - I settle for partial on this one and make regular calls to the miraculous donation pick up truck.  

Result:  Less time cleaning areas and things I don’t want, more time to rest.

3.  Get a couple of kittens.  This really is a double whammer.  It occupies the kids for endless hours as they chase them and snuggle them.  AND they eat the flies and keep the mice away.  

Result:  Less time swatting flies and lying in bed worrying about finding a mouse in my kitchen again, more time to rest.

4.  Get chickens.  The kids will chase them endlessly, wearing themselves out.  Really...have you ever chased Chirpy?  Softie?  Grayson, just to name a few?  Not sure when the kids will realize they don’t HAVE to catch the chicken for it to lay an egg.  It WILL nest and lay on its own.  

Result:  The kids get tired and sleep, sleep, sleep. More time to rest for mama.

5.  Always get ready to leave earlier than you think you need to, especially if you have kids to accompany you.  No one likes to be rushed, and no one feels good about rushing others.  Save everyone the hassle and just leave early, allowing for time to notice what you would otherwise miss.  How else would my son have had time to notice all that popcorn on the floor of the car, just when his stomach was grumbling?

Maybe REST is what most of us are missing.  It’s what many of us need.  I set my keys down in a store TWO DIFFERENT DAYS this week and tried to drive away without them.  Please - don’t try this with 3 kids in tow.  Searching stores on your hands and knees while trying to remind your kids you’re not buying them those sparkly new shoes isn’t recipe for a good time.  With a frazzled mind, this and similar scenarios are the norm.  I won’t tell you about the trip to the store the other day with my shirt inside out.  

But with rest, things just seem to flow a little easier.  

Rest isn’t something I’m naturally great at.  Productivity, efficiency, accomplishment are my game.  

But what I’ve been working on looks a little more like sitting, reading, pausing, thinking.  Not thinking.  

My anxious tendency still wins most of the time, but I’m noticing.  I’m noticing when my thoughts come and I’m pausing a little more to let them come AND to let them go.

To let my feelings, concerns and anxieties come, but not to buckle them in.