Does anyone else feel like they are just surviving?
This last week has definitely felt like that for me
The fact that I make it from 6:30am to 11pm is a miracle some days!
Here are a few reasons why I do survive!
1. I shower every morning – some days this is the only time I am alone, without holding someone, having someone touching me, or feeding someone!
2. I wear Sully in a SnuggyBaby. This provides me to do a lot hands free – like swinging Mylin, picking produce out of our garden, changing Mylin’s diapers, or chasing her around the dining room table (a current favorite, “Mommy, run run run!”). A lot of times I wear him because he loves to be upright with his head tilted back staring at my face. I love this too! But don’t have the luxury to just sit there for the 30 minutes that he enjoys this actvity 🙂
3. I am constantly praying for God to ‘fill in the gaps’ for me – I wake up thinking “Today is the day that I won’t be able to make it/take it anymore” So I immediately pray for patience and grace – and where I fall short in those, God, please make up the difference!
An excerpt from Forgotten God by Francis Chan explains it this way:
“You are most likely familiar with the ‘fruit passage’ in Galatians 5, which says, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law’ (v 22-23). You may even ahve the list memorized. But look over those traits right now and ask yourself if you possess each to a supernatural degree. Do you exhibit more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons you know? Do you have more self-control than your Muslim friends? More peac than Buddhists? More joy than atheists? If GOD truly lives in you, shouldn’t you expect to be different than everyone else?
What disturbs me most is when we’re not really bothered that God living in us has not made much of a noticeable difference. Most churchgoers are content to find a bit of peace rather than a ‘peace of God, which surpasses all understanding’ (Phil. 4:7). We want just enough peace to survive the week (or perhaps even the day).
Certainly there have been times in my life when just getting through the day was possible only with God’s supernatural help and presence. You might understand the kind of desperate season I am talking about; most of us have experienced times like this – times when we really do have to ask for peace and sustenance every ten minutes. But what I am talking about is when we live our lives this way, when every day of our lives we are just barely hanging on, looking no different from the rest of the world.
When we exhibit the peace that surpasses the world’s understanding, that’s when the world notices. That’s when people say, ‘Your Lord – He is God!'”
4. Joel and I are in constant communication about our feelings, emotions, priorities, and expectations. Granted, this often happens at like 10:30 at night – or sometimes even at 3am…but we have to make each other a priority even when we’re tired or we’d never have alone time at all! We make our marriage a priority because that came first, before the sweet kiddos, and that will last long after they are raised and have moved on…we have to nurture this relationship above all other earthly ones.
What do you do to survive the newborn stage?
Don’t get me wrong, I do thoroughly enjoy it as well…but some days it’s all about making it to bedtime 🙂
simple thankful radical 
I saw this poem when Alex (my 2nd) was a baby. On days when I feel like I'm just trying to survive the craziness, I think of this poem and how true it is that our babies won't be babies forever. Praying for you that God gives you strength and Joy! in this season:)Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,Hang out the washing and butter the bread,Sew on a button and make up a bed.Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.Oh, I’ve grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).Dishes are waiting and bills are past due(Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stewAnd out in the yard there’s a hullabalooBut I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.Look! Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,For children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
Yes, I remember that passage from the book and it definitely stuck with me then but I had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder!
Rachel, What great tools to employ! Thank you for sharing. Love the Frances Chan blurb.