Self-care??

There are women out there in the world

who make it look easy.

Some of them have twice as many kids

as I have, and the photos I see online and in magazines

look like they have a team of tiny fairies flittering

around their homes all day picking up stray socks,

dog fur clumps, dust bunnies, and dropped cheerios.

I am not that woman.

I currently have socks on my coffee table

because I probably picked them up off of the carpet and 

then laid them down when I picked up 

something else.

I have not vacuumed today 

(and we have 7 kids and a giant furry beast of a dog).

I have unfolded laundry curing in my rocking chair

more in the washer and dryer and still more waiting to get washed.

I didn't bother to make my bed this morning.

Or most any other morning.

Because, seriously...

who is going to see it??

(Hi, Mom... sorry. But it's true.)

So, when my friend Jamey gave me a blog topic

of "self-care"

("You know, how you take care of yourself so you don't burn out")

I thought she might be losing her mind.

Take care of myself???

Seriously??

Ha.

There was this one day that I thought I was going to be all

organized and stuff...

so I made myself a "to-do" list.

Vacuum

Dishes

Take boxes to garage

put summer clothes in attic

change sheets on beds

fold laundry

put laundry away

shower

clean hallway chalkboard

declutter toys in playroom

bring potted plants inside

And do you see the problem??

Other than the dead plant on my porch...

I didn't get to cross of "shower" on my list.

So my sarcastic genius friend Jamey tells me

to write a post about my PLAN for self-care then.

Ah HA!

Another to-do list.

Since I am clearly in need of such a plan...

FINE.

I'll give it a go.

Honestly, it is HARD to think about taking care of

yourself when you have 7 kids, a husband and a dog.

It's hard to carve out a few minutes to do something

that puts energy back into ME because I know there is 

the ever growing list of things everyone ELSE needs.

The laundry that never ends...

The dishes that multiply like caged rabbits...

The homework...

The floors...

The toys...

The piles of books, paper, magazines, catalogs..

The THINGS that everyone leaves all over the place...

Those things all sabotage any plans I have of taking care of ME.

What this leads to is...

bitterness,

discontentment,

anger,

frustration,

self-pity

and 

irritability.

Who likes those things?

Not me.

SO.

A plan.

A realistic plan.

I'm thinking that for starters:

• I will eat breakfast before 9am.
• I will take my vitamins regularly (working towards every day).
• I will get dressed with shoes on and be prepared for whatever comes up.
• I will use nap time wisely (shower, relaxing project, etc) and to my advantage.
• I will plan menus since meals are a constant stress on my brain.
• I will make chore lists for the kids and stop feeling bitter about them not helping with things I have not asked them for help with. I know they don't pick up anything unless told, so I need to just write it down and stop feeling frustrated.

I know...

It's no major breakthrough...

but I think it will help.

No promises, but I MIGHT decide to make my bed, too.