Yesterday was Mother's Day, I had a beautiful day celebrating with my family. I hope that you all had a beautiful celebrating the women in your life.
One of the areas I wanted to Thrive in this year is motherhood. Most of 2013, I felt like I was in a fog when it came to mothering. I was learning how to be a mom of two, juggling a preschooler and an infant was no easy task for me.
For far to many days I was lazy, we stayed in our pjs way to much, and I didn't feel like I was accomplishing very much in my days with them. I was just barely surviving during a really trying season.
When I thought about what I wanted the next year to be like God put the word Thrive on my heart. I knew he wanted me to thrive in all areas of my life, but motherhood was very close to my heart because of the season that I'd just come out of. This next year, I wanted to enjoy mothering more. Take more risks, pour myself into other moms, enjoy being a wife and mom again in a way I hadn't in the last year.
God has been teaching me a lot about his grace during times like this. Teaching me a lot about the importance of rest and self-care that we mamas so easily forget to do ourselves.
I wanted to share with you some practical things that I am doing to Thrive in motherhood. To take care of myself and my family. I first want to say that I don't do it all. I say no to a lot of things, and over the years have really learned my limits and giftings in this area. I try to prioritize everything around my faith and family. So when I'm asked to do something before committing to anything I really run it through the list of priorities based on those two things. My family always comes first before I say "yes" to something. I look at our schedule of what we already have going on, I take that into consideration a lot. My husband and I talk about the week ahead, we don't like to be busy everyday of the week or weekend so we also take that into consideration.
A few things I'm doing to thrive in motherhood this year;
1. Making time for myself.
I know this is really hard for a lot of people, for me too. But I realized last year that when I didn't make time for myself and take care of myself that I wasn't very happy with myself and lacked confidence in myself as well. A lot of people ask me how I make time for working out, and my answer has just always been you have to just make the time. You have to make yourself important, carve out the time and do it. Maybe your thing is reading and you want to carve out time, do it. I've learned making time for myself has been vital in helping me to thrive in how I then mother.
2. Keeping Sundays free.
Keeping the Sabbath and committing to rest on Sundays has been key for me. We don't schedule anything on Sunday. We go to church, we come home, often times we're lazy and that's the way we like it. Casual, no plans and a time for rest. There's a lot of play time and family time involved on Sundays and it's been so good for this mama's heart.
3. Date Nights.
My husband and I haven't always been great at this, however this year we've really tried to make an effort to make date nights a top priority. I've seen how they vastly improve our marriage and how we are together. Even if you can't get away, carve out special time together at night after the kids go to sleep.
4. Spending time by myself.
I've learned that sometimes I just need to get away by myself to recharge. Sometimes that looks like a Target run by myself, grabbing a Starbucks, or sometimes that means I steal an hour alone in my bedroom kid free. Either way time alone for myself to recharge has been really helpful and important.
5. Play Dates.
When I first started staying at home with both my kiddos I thought that I'd be hopping all around from play date to play date with friends. Well, things didn't quite happen like that and I felt really isolated a lot. I learned that I needed to get my kids out of the house, and let them play with others on a regular basis. I also realized that I needed that interaction as well.
6. Time with Friends.
Simply, I've been pursuing community and friendship in my life more than ever. At least once a month I've made it a point to hang out with girlfriends, get out of my house and my yoga pants and do something with friends. It's been amazing for me to see my friendships grow over the past few months simply just by me being willing to step out of my comfort zone and pursue intentional relationships.
Thrive is so much more than a word to me this year. It's a goal for me. It's a motto for me. It's becoming a silent reminder to me when I make decisions I ask myself; "Will I thrive if I do this, if I see this, if I pursue that.?"
I'm thankful for what the Lord is teaching me during this season of life.
What are you learning about yourself during this current season of life that you are in?
