Life is hectic and as a mom, I am constantly thinking of every little thing that needs to happen around our house to keep things working like a well-oiled machine. (Okay, okay…maybe it’s more like a car that’s 1000 miles past due for an oil change, but you get the point.)
Sometimes, we get so busy with our worries and lists that we forget to do things we enjoy just because we enjoy them.
Don’t get me wrong; I love baking new recipes for my family to try, but I do that to get variety into the menu. I love playing games with my kids, but I do that because they love it. I love spending the day out at the pool with the kids, but I do that for them, not me.
So when was the last time you did something just for you?
Even when I go on a girls’ day out with my mom, we usually spend our time shopping for things my kids or my husband would like, not as the goal, but as a “Aww, wouldn’t ________ love this!” It’s hard not to think about your husband and kiddos when that’s what you are used to doing. When someone asks, “What do you like to do?,” I usually say, “Oh, I don’t know, spending time with the family, playing games and baking, I guess.” It’s like I have forgotten I was a whole person before having kids, a person who had interests of their own.
I recently started trying to do something small for myself every day.
Before I was a wife and mom, I loved art and photography, and my favorite thing to do was to read a good mystery/suspense book. So, I dug out the last book I bought (I read a chapter of it and then found out I was pregnant with my last little, so it’s been at least five years) and I started reading when I had free time. I had forgotten how much I loved reading. I finished the book in four days. If you like mystery/suspense books, you can find the book here. It is the second book in a series, so I would recommend starting with the first book which is here. I ordered the next book in the series and I am now waiting impatiently for it to come. My husband found another book he thought I might like, so I started it and finished it in three days. I love that you can get lost in a book after the kids go to bed — your mind can take you somewhere new.
Writing has also always been a passion of mine. I started writing a book a couple years ago and I have taken a few long breaks from it when things have gotten hectic with mom life, but I think I want to get back to it. Even if it’s never published, I want to complete it. Writing is an outlet for me. As I am writing this, it is the wee hours of the morning before the kids are active, my husband is asleep in bed next to me, the house is quiet and the words flow easily through my fingers. It’s almost therapeutic.
