Self Care: These are two words that frequent my workplace since I am in the world of Child Welfare. Anyone who works helping others, has probably had a training or two on the subject.
You’re told not to forget about these two words as mother too! You’d think being only two words, that it would be easy…guess again!
Since the girls came into my life, I’ve felt like I’m running up hill, putting out fires, and trying to survive. Looking back I feel like I wasn’t able to enjoy the time with them as much as I would have liked. It sucks that the cute memories and experiences were stripped from us because we were in fight or flight mode from day 1. Days were filled with doctor appointments, court hearings, home visits, therapy sessions, all with my own career and the ever-so frequent illnesses that came with their compromised immune systems.
Since getting married, life has started to level out. It’s amazing how having a partner to help has really taken a load off! Now, I see why we were taught to have children after we were married… it takes two parents to make a house complete. Not saying that it’s impossible with other dynamics, but having someone to team up with you for all the things; is ever so helpful! My family has really been a crutch in making this life a success and I cannot thank them enough. They continue to help whenever needed, my mom is a saint! There’s just something about having a second adult in the house that makes life easier to handle!
Back to self care… see, even while writing I forget to go back to it! I made my resolution this year to make the focus on myself. It sounds selfish, but it needed to happen. Almost everything that made me happy has been slowly stripped away after I decided to be a mother/Foster Parent. I am not upset about this, it was just a life change that needed to happen. My priorities had changed for a short time.
The first accomplishment was taking the step to join weight watchers (WW). I have always been “Fat and happy”, but now that we are in our 30s it’s important to make better eating decisions. You only have one body, so I feel like we need to be more conscious about what I put in it! I’m quickly learning how awful my eating habits were, even though I didn’t each a lot… just bad choices. For those considering, WW is pretty easy. I’ll admit that I thought I was becoming anorexic for the first week as my body adjusted, but after about day 6 something shifted. Now I am able to learn what foods to eat and what to put on my plate when I am at gatherings/parties. I highly recommend it! So far, we have lost about 10lbs in a month, sleep better, and just feel better. We didn’t really worry about the tracking while we were on vacation, but went right back to it upon our return. So far, I am happy with our decision and progress thus far!
Step number two was more Jesus in my life. With kids, I am sure you can agree that getting to church every week is not as easy as you’d like! Sleeping in on Sunday or having a lazy morning is just essential sometimes. I took a step and signed up for a women’s group at our church and attended for the first time last week. I almost talked myself out of it, but my husband pushed me to go. Just like the gym, I was happy I went once I got there. Being able to connect with others and talk about how a scripture impacts our lives is just good for the soul. I encourage you to find what makes your soul happy and bring it back!
As we move forward, I’ll make more decisions for a better me! Now I wait for my tax return to come back… we are going to book our Alaskan cruise for next year! Yipee!!
What are your goals/resolutions this year?? I’d love to hear more about them!
