Balance

Today I'm linking up with Hearts at Home again! This month's topic is all about balance~ Do you have it? Where do you find it? Are you taking care of you while managing a life? Mary Byers' book "The Mother Load" has the tagline 'If you're taking care of the kids, who is taking care of you?' This is a great question because I think once we start pouring ourselves into our kids, the first thing to get dropped from the priority list are our own needs. I was especially guilty of this when my kids were really small because they require so much from us 24 hours a day!

A bit like a teeter-totter, life has lots of ups and downs... I'd love to just find the middle line of perfect balance! But then again, if the teeter-totter always stayed straight, it wouldn't be so much fun, would it?! Okay, so I'm rethinking my see-saw comparison because I think in this case balance is the goal... I'll leave the picture, but trash the analogy!

 I've got to admit that I'm not always the best at this... but I have learned, especially over the last few months that I do a much better job of taking care of those around me if I am continually being refreshed from the inside out by Jesus. The hardest thing is that this takes such a huge amount of intentionality. I have to make getting up early to spend time in His Word a priority.

I have also found that I need to spend time with my girlfriends! I lived for a long time thinking that I just didn't need anyone else, but this was a terrible belief! Now we have fairly regular girls' nights, craft nights, and also a weekly Bible study. We laugh together, pray for and cry with each other~ These times are a huge part of my being better able to manage my home and love on my kids!

So how do you manage it all? Do you have any tips & tricks to offer? We'd love for you to link up and check out the posts from other mommas~ we're all on this journey together!