Beautiful Day of Peace and Rest

Have you ever felt bone-tired? You know, where your whole body just aches at the end of the day and all you can think about is sleep and when you will be able to have a nap tomorrow? Saturday night when I was setting my alarm clock I almost cried realizing that I was going to actually have to get out of bed in the morning (and not all that early either, mind you--7:00 AM).

This is the view from the church parking lot. I took the picture Saturday when I went there to set up for the Young Women in Excellence program.

Saturday was a doozy. Three of our four boys had multiple places to be: the ACT, a football game, a marching band competition, an athletic banquet, a merit badge pow wow for Boy Scouts. My husband also needed to go into work part of the day (but thank goodness he could help me getting kids where they needed to go and thank goodness for a second car. We didn't have one at this time last year and there is no way we would have been able to do it all on our own).

On top of all that I was planning for a big event after church Sunday that I was in charge of ("Young Women in Excellence"--more on that later) so I was running around all day--shuttling kids, attending the football game, picking up things I needed for the church thing, going to the church to set up, attending the athletic banquet, and grocery shopping for my own family, because for the life of me I can't seem to keep food in the house with the way my three older boys are eating these days.

Sometimes when life gets hectic you just have to stop and smell the. . .milkweed?

On days like that my life at home devolves into chaos. I end up coming in the door, dropping whatever I'm holding and picking up whatever I need before rushing out the door again. In between times I'm trying to throw in a load of laundry so my kids have clean white shirts for Sunday and quickly do the dishes so that the kitchen doesn't become a biohazard. Let's not talk about the mammoth pile of laundry in my family room that needs to be folded and put away.

When my kids were little I thought parenting them was exhausting, and it is--I don't want to discount how hard it is to be a parent to young children, but I had no idea how much more busy it would become. It didn't get less exhausting. Not at all. Just different.

This is my youngest. He got himself ready for church because I had an early meeting and my husband was attending to our other son who was sick. I'm not going to lie--I'm digging his pattern mixing. The kid has style. 

At church, I kept thinking about how grateful I am to have the Sabbath as a day of rest in my life. Monday is bringing another whole set of places to be, appointments to keep and jobs to do, but Sunday I was able to take some time for peaceful reflection at church as I took the Sacrament. I was edified by the speakers and the Sunday school lesson. I had a good discussion with the young women about developing the Christlike attribute of patience. I felt loved and supported as many members came to support the young women in the ward at the Young Women in Excellence program and as many friends expressed concern for me when they could see that I was exhausted (because I really stink at hiding that sort of thing). The Sabbath was truly a delight. And so was my Sunday afternoon nap.