Day 15 and 16 - Who Takes Care of M-E?

Mothering isn't for wimps. If you're a mother, you know this to be oh, so true.

My husband decided to clean out a rented storage unit this weekend, and he needed my help. So I just spent my weekend scrubbing and cleaning and caring for children and cooking and baking and mucking our a garage and hauling boxes from a storage unit into the garage and climbing ladders and bathing toddler and encouraging friends and washing, drying and folding laundry. Not one day did I rest, even though it is my time to "rest."

Because now it's Monday and I'm going back to my 8 - 5 job working for a court system. My coworkers are lovely, really. Even my judge. But there's 4 days of trial beginning today and I can't miss a beat or a mess up the record-keeping. See, while the attorneys and secretaries and even the judge can yawn and lose focus for a moment, or sit back and stretch their arms, or even lean over and have a sip of coffee...I can't.

I must stoically maintain my posture and fervently maintain my listening skills in order to perform my job as court stenographer.

It's physically and mentally taxing. My hands ache, my back aches, my head begins to throb. But I can't miss a single spoken word in the whole 4 days of trial.

And as I stated, I had a long weekend. In fact, I was up 6 times last night. It was the stupid cat meowing, or it was my toddler who cried out or it was my middle daughter...or whatever. But seriously, I was up 6 times last night total.

All while my husband sawed logs in our bedroom.

Mothering...it ain't for sissies.

When mother says, "Well, I should go to sleep," she REALLY means, "I have a load of laundry to do, some dishes to clean, the pets to take care of, the baby to bathe, the children to tuck in bed, and my prayers to be spoken before I can hit the sack."

And when a husband says, "I'm going to bed," he means it. Five minutes later, he is snoring while his wife makes sure all the little loose ends get tied.

So...my big question..."WHO TAKES CARE OF ME?"

Because it sure can get extremely tiring working full-time, working full-time on my weekends, too, and then working full-time all week long. And doing it all on nights like I had last night.

Maybe it's my coffee that takes care of me.

Maybe it's my bathtub that takes care of me.

Maybe....maybe it's my middle daughter who rubs my aching feet once in a while...or my eldest child who helps me around my home so much. Or my toddler who looks into my eyes and says, "I wuv yooo." And okay, sometimes even my husband can help me, too, when he cooks a fabulous salmon steak fillet.

Mothers aren't meant to be taken care of on a regular basis....we are expected to take care of everyone else 100% of the time.

Or MAYBE...the answer is..."I NEED TO LEARN TO TAKE CARE OF MYSELF."

But how?

Help me, Lord, learn to take care of myself, too.

"The everlasting God neither faints nor is weary...He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, He increases strength...but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength...they shall run and not be weary...they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40: 28 - 31