Letting Go of "Supermom" (Days 282-291)

If I had my way, I'd sleep for a week.  Seriously.  When did my life get so darn crazy?  And how long will it last?  These are the questions I keep asking myself... everyday.  I've been cooking up a storm lately and my kitchen can't seem to keep up with the chaos.  There's always another dish to wash.  There are a million "little things" that have to do with our renovations that still need to get done, which is driving me crazy.  Things are misplaced.  Rooms are not organized the way I want them to be because we're still finishing projects and waiting on furniture.  The "wallpaper room" happens to have another coat of wallpaper UNDER the purple paint that was UNDER the top coat of wallpaper and I've just about had it with this room!  We've emptied most of the belongings from this room into our bedroom while we work.  So our used-to-be-quiet-and-calm-bedroom-retreat is now a room of loud disorganization that we can hardly walk through.  There's ironing to do, food to be prepared, cleaning, organizing, schooling, and the list goes on.  I haven't mentioned it yet, but I also started working part-time for our church recently which is wonderful and a huge answered prayer, but can also be added to the list.  Part of me wants to crawl into bed and hide from it all.  But the other part of me is too excited to sleep... new adventures are starting, my head is spinning with ideas and creativity.  We're jumping into the holiday season and I'm loving it!  But there's also the responsibility of the holidays.  The Christmas shopping and, oh yeah, I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year for the first time!  Yikes.  I better lie down.  But I won't, because if I do, I'll most certainly fall asleep and not wake up for a month--and I don't have time for that!

They wanted to help... no, really!

I can't seem to say "no" to things--except to help when it's offered.  Anyone else have this problem?  I need to learn to say "no" to a few more requests made of me and "yes" to a few more offers of assistance.  I've been trying to achieve this "supermom" status that I keep failing at.  I often write a list of things I need to do on Monday and then I'm lucky if they all get done by Thursday.  How discouraging is that?  Based on that math, I'm disappointing myself and feeling like a failure everyday until Thursday.  Then I feel like a failure because Thursday's list didn't get done.  So what's the solution?  I need to keep my lists in order to stay sane, and I do TRY to spread my items out across the week, but my lists just need to be smaller.  Or I need to put less pressure on myself.  Or how about I need to focus more on God rather than my list.

Helping me "vacuum" in his pretty pink dress. ;)

We all have "idols" in our life--things we put before God.  But God is a jealous god and wants to come before my lists and organizational desires in life.  Which is hard to do for me because I have even planned out my "perfect" quiet time with the Lord and if I can't achieve it just the way I want on a given day, I just don't do it.  Awful.  Who would've thought that a desire for neatness and organization and (ahem) "perfection" could be an idol???  ;)  In this era, it's easy to blame social media for moms beating themselves up all the time.  And maybe there is a part of the internet to blame.  But I believe that mostly, it's my own fault for not putting God first in my life and not fully relying on Him.  If I was truly at peace with who and how God made me, social media would have no hold on me.  Cute ideas I see on pinterest or facebook wouldn't make me feel worse about myself.  They'd have no power to.  I see good things on social media sites also.  Just today I shared a status put up by a gospel singer that was an excellent reminder for me.  It's a verse from Galatians, "Now do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the one I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."  Galatians 1:10

God doesn't care what my time with Him "looks" like, as long as it's real time with Him!  I have someone in my life who wants me just the way He made me--He doesn't need a fresh cup of coffee, my floors to be clean, fresh baked muffins, a nice-smelling house, a diaper change, or the perfect crayon box and coloring book.  He just needs me.  And He's the person I probably spend the least amount of time with in my day.  He's always with me, of course, but I'm not spending real, quality time with Him.  My prayer is to become more intentional about my time with the Lord, and I'm determined to not let it become just another item on my list.  And hopefully by focusing more on Him, I'll focus less on my list and therefore a lot less on my "shortcomings."

Yardwork in a pretty white dress.  See, I do accept help sometimes!

These past 10 days have been a mish-mash of dinners.  Randy's work schedule and some renovation stuff have prevented us from eating dinner at home every night.  I haven't even taken a picture of food since my broccoli cheddar soup night (10 days ago!).  I'm working on a new post dedicated to pumpkin-flavored baked goods, which is not ready yet.  So allow me to expose my weakness and say that I can't specifically account for all the meals we've had recently.  I know we've gone out, and when we've eaten at home, we've had "repeat" meals.  But at the bottom of this post, I'll include links to some of the recipes of the meals we have eaten recently that I've already blogged about in the past.

If you're like me or could relate to my ramblings, will you join me in letting go of the "supermom" status we're trying to achieve?  Seriously, because I'll probably need an accountability partner for this one! ~ Bethany

"'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Corinthians 12:9

This past week's meals included (but were not limited to):
spaghetti & meatballs, meatloaf, chicken taco rice, broccoli cheddar soup