Rest

It's now been six months since we welcomed Jonah into the world and in that span of time our family has grown into something truly beautiful.  Jonah's love for Nicole is so tangible I feel like I could reach out and touch it.  Nicole's acceptance of her baby brother and her understanding of my changing role has paved the way for happier days.  And while I am delighted to look into the sweet faces of my smiling children day after day, I still find myself feeling completely worn out.

I gratefully accept the inevitable exhaustion that stems from parenting two tiny children, but I am beginning to resist the extra measures of exhaustion I heap on myself because I don't take time to rest.  In short,  while some of my exhaustion is necessary for this current stage of the game, not all of it is.

Knowing the difference between what things I need to accomplish and what I can let slide has not been easy.  Not only because there are a lot of components to keeping everyone feed, clothed and cared for but also because I love to be productive.  I frequently utilize the small moments I have in my day to get something around the house done.  I think that 90% of the time, leveraging my free time for the sake of keeping our household running is a great use of my time.  The problem is that by using all of my free moments to accomplish something, I never stop and rest. 

One day while I was sprinting around the house switching loads of laundry, gathering library books and trying to get a jump start on dinner before nap time expired, I found myself asking the Lord to teach me how to rest.  I've asked the Lord that same question dozens of times since then and while I'm still not resting as much as I probably should, I'm beginning to see that rest is just as pressing as the laundry list of chores vying for my attention. 

I began to look around and realize that my hard-working and dedicated husband was not getting the rest he needed either and it was time to make a change.  When I started to ponder what it would look like to institute a day of rest in our home, I knew that I needed to be intentional about it happening but flexible about the timing. We are at the very beginning stages of learning how to observe a Sabbath day.   So far that has meant that I have to plan on taking a day to rest.  Shawn and I work extra hard all week long to keep up with the laundry, meal prep and other miscellaneous household chores so that when the weekend rolls around, we can spend a day resting.

On that rest day we spend a lot more time intentionally enjoying our children and when they nap, we do too.  Jonah and Nicole don't always nap together, and if that's the case, Shawn and I try to tag team the kids for part of the afternoon so we can each sneak in a mid-day day nap for ourselves.  It's not perfect, but it's been so good. 

What are your favorite ways to rest?
Love,
Erica