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JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

Pause Life for a Moment- Good Day, Regular People

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Today’s Pause Life for a moment blogger is the Empress. She reigns over Good Day, Regular People with a kind heart, a generous spirit, and a sense of fun. I love to stop by to read her posts. Her blog shares her insights as well as her son Baby E’s. Life can get you down at times. The Empress’ posts can brighten your day and  can make you laugh, think or cry.

First, JDaniel’s mom, I want to thank you for the special gift of being invited to guest for “Pause Life For a Moment.”

This series you’ve created, just in writing on the topic, allows any guest poster and reader of these words, to pause in their day, and refocus on what is going to matter to us, our families, and our children.

I thank you, for the space you’ve given me here, to “re-focus.”

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Women are busier now then they have ever been.

The opportunities, along with the lure of social media, exercise clubs, personal hobbies, working outside of the home or inside the home, is deliciously tempting, and rewarding.

We are no longer lonely women at home, we have friends at the push of a key. Contact with others can be a short 20 minute drive away.

How easy it is to answer the call of instant access to others. Especially when you’ve found yourself feeling isolated, while home with your children.

The pull to go online, or build your social circle, email friends, go on twitter, text, join a cycling club, interact with others, is a very strong one.

It is for me.

How do we, as women, find the time that is necessary to do what matters in life? The important things. To devote ourselves entirely to our families is a saintly goal. One that I tried for, but found that pursuit leaving me resentful, lonely, unhappy, and with a clinical case of depression that did not make for a happy home life for anyone.

I enjoy my interaction with others outside of my family. Conversations and quick exchanges between friends can buoy my mood upward for days.

But, again, the question: how do you FIND the time for special moments for your family? Aside from the necessary of keeping house, preparing meals, grocery shopping, working?

And it isn’t only women who are online that are short on time. There are women who exercise faithfully an hour and a half at a time, daily. There are women who delight in being immersed in a good book for at least an hour of their day. There are women who find joy in their work outside of their home, or who work at home.

Where do we find the time to Pause. And really be in our lives.

I had a light bulb moment a few years ago, and it occurred by accident.

Our mornings here, in my quest for efficiency, ironically in hopes of creating a pocket of “worthwhile” time later, were spent in quick, drill like processes.

Breakfast, washed up, dressed, prayer, boom – start the day.

While my children ate, I’d clean up. So streamlined, in and out in 45 minutes.

One particular day, I noticed my oldest son just kept talking to me, coming over to stand next to me at the kitchen sink, and talking. Thank God I felt the tug in my heart to stop the activity I was involved in, and decided I needed to go sit and listen to him.

When he went back to the kitchen table, I followed him. I pulled up the chair next to him, poured myself some orange juice, and sat to look at him while he spoke. I cleared my mind of my mental to do list.

I listened to my boy.

He had plans, ideas of what he thought he might want to do as an adult. I listened, with my eyes on his face instead of the usual downcast look while I did the dishes, in the hopes of getting a jump on my day.

I watched my beautiful son’s face grow more animated, as he drank in my mental presence. I saw his smile burst big and bright, the longer I sat with him.

I felt my heart grow warm with gratitude. I felt nothing and thought of nothing, but this moment with him.

I was Pausing Life for the Moment.

I was living in it, and I was there with him.

This was a connection, this was joy: on an ordinary morning with no special pre-arranged “time for each other.”

Yes, there should still be an intention of creating moments and time for our children. But, simply put, pauses don’t have to be planned in order to happen.

We just have to recognize them.

And that has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of time in a day.

Please stop by Good Day, Regular People and let the Empress know about a time you pause your day and connected with your kids.

Pause Life for a Moment- Blue Cotton Memory

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I fell in love with Blue Cotton Memory’s writer and her blog when I read her post on the Six Mom Stages of Boys in January of 2010. It is a wonderful post on how mothering never end it just changes over time. She inspires me to be a better mom and challenges me to think about motherhood in new ways. I am thrilled she is here visiting with you today.
Pausing Places

By Maryleigh at Blue Cotton Memory

I love rain storms. Rain storms are the pause button to my schedule. Maybe it’s baseball or football that keeps you busy – it’s soccer for me. When the rain comes, my schedule comes to a grinding halt.

“I’m bored. What can we do?” the boys always ask

“Fill the emptiness,” I answer.

“With what?” they persist.

“With big and little thoughts,” I think. “Press in to the quietness. Let its peace be like a soothing balm rubbed into the cracked and worn feet of my soul, soothing my walk, giving me rest.”

“’This is the resting place, let the weary rest’”; and, “’This is the place of repose’”–but they would not listen” (Isaiah 28:12)


“It is important to learn how to handle nothing-ness,” I answer. I go into a great story about back in the day when I was their age, only 3 TV channels existed. On a rainy day we built card houses, watched NASCAR races, played cards or board games. . . read books. On sunny days, porch wall jump-offs, sidewalk roller skating, tree climbing, daisy chain construction, bee catching.

We never uttered the words, “I am bored.” If we gave them a mouth-full of whine, they gave us an afternoon full of chores. We wisely kept our complaints to ourselves.

“Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature” (Albert Einstein)


Where do you go when nothing-ness comes? Where is your Pausing Place? Pausing Places – a place to sit and let nothingness wash through, like clear water in a rushing stream – clearing away the debris of my soul, clearing away for freshness and new growth.

My back porch, during a rain storm – that is one of my pausing places. Sometimes it is my kitchen when no one is home – and I can throw myself into the cooking and think about life without interruptions – while making something wonderful for my boys.

“Solitude is such a potential thing. We hear voices in solitude, we never hear in the hurry and turmoil of life; we receive counsels and comforts, we get under no condition”

(Amelia E. Barr)


Other times, it is wrapping myself in a blanket, curling up with a good book and my knitting. I would read a bit, knit a bit. That happened the other day. My son flung himself across the end of my bed – and just looked at me.

“There’s nothing to do,” he said, baleful eyes woefully wooing me to create “something” for him out of nothing.

“I’m having a great time,” I said. “I’m loving this. I’m sorry there is nothing you want to do – but there is plenty you can do. But – I am not going to let your frustration mar my nothing-to-do-time.

He sighed.

“One of the most important things you need to learn is how to find peace and joy in the nothingness of a day,” I gently coaxed.

He wallowed a bit more, making sure I knew he was frustrated. I wouldn’t be baited. I sent him on his way.

Filling each moment with him-centered activities does not prepare him to live a fully enriched life. If they do not learn to embrace the quiet times, the stopping times, then later, they might fill those moments with harmful activities – just to fill the nothingness.

One of the most important skills in life is to learn how to embrace those pauses. My boys, well, they need to learn how to make something out of nothing. Their day is so chocked full of activities they become bewildered when they face, what they think, is the Great Monster Nothingness – which I have discovered to be a great friend.

Learning to turn nothing into blessing – what a great life-skill. Bring on those rainy days!

Pause Life for a Moment- Red Ted Art

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Maggie of Red Ted Art is a amazing blogger. She takes crafts and art with children to a new level. Her posts inspire me to be a more crafty mom. She actually does more than that she write about her children and her life while sharing crafts. She makes you with you could sit down with her and chat about life, children and crafts over a cup of tea.

Pause Life for a Moment

 

Hello. I am Maggy from Red Ted Art, and I am so pleased to be visiting JDaniel4’s Mum’s blog this week.

JDaniel4’s Mum and I met via the lovely  Jenny Matlock’s blog and her alphabet Thursdays meme and I then started linking up to Read.Learn.Explore every Friday. I love reading her blog and it is fabulous to get to write for it.

Pausing Your Life for a Moment

Those who know me know that I NEVER stop. I like being busy and getting stuff done. Throw two small children and a craft blog into the equation and you may have an idea of my busy-ness. When I watch TV, I knit. When I sit in the passenger seat of a car, I read some interview that I have printed out. When I am on the underground, I write to do lists or have a book with me.

Pausing Your Life for a Moment
…
is not something I do very often. And having been asked to write this post has made me think a little about it. I really don’t do it enough. And I know I can never quite “just sit still”.

So here, I pledge some more time to pause – for me – time to pause, means time for reflection:

I pledge to spend more time in the garden.

Spending time in the garden, getting flower beds ready, tidying up the vegetable plants, picking fruit, clearing debris. Looking after what nature is providing. I get to think just about the task at hand, which is wonderfully soothing. Trimming, looking, examing. Or I get to let my mind wander. Think about things I haven’t thought about in a long time. Letting things fall into perspective.

Our garden isn’t very big. But it is big enough to let me (and my children) connect with nature and give a few minutes of reflective respite a day.

I pledge to spend more time sketching.

When I craft, my mind does actually relax too – so although I talked about how “I never stop” and that “knitting” is a good example of this, I also find, that I can switch off whilst I knit or do some other craft. In fact this can be a problem, as I sometimes forget to follow the pattern that way… and just go into auto mode.

But I have just signed up to a Sketchbook challenge – where you receive a small sketch book and you get to draw inside whatever you like. I am really looking forward to this, as it will let me empty my head out onto a page. I am sure some days it will be a challenge and I hoping other days it will just flow. And on the days that it just flows.. I know I will have time to reflect and think about life and my family.

I pledge to go to the playground more often.


The children can play.

I can sit. I can watch. And I can think.

…
for a bit, until they need some help or a push on the swing.

Maybe I will be better at not forgetting everybody’s Birthday this year!

What areas of your life would you like to pledge to work on?

 

Pause Life for a Moment- Love Makes Family

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Lauren of Love Makes Family is a new mom with a very dear and adorable little boy adopted from Ethiopian. I started following her blog just as she and her husband were finding out they were going to be parents. She has a easy flowing writing style that allow her to weave words around her amazing pictures..  I love to read updates on her life and learn from the her about the joy of being a mom.
Pause Life for a Moment

Hi, I’m Lauren from “Love Makes a Family.” I am so thankful for this opportunity to be a guest here at JDaniel4’s Mom.

In my short 27 years of life I have learned that it comes in seasons. There are seasons of prosperity and seasons when you look at the bills and your bank account and the numbers just aren’t working in your favor. There are seasons of joy and seasons of mourning. There are seasons of rest and seasons when you feel like one of those hamsters running just as fast as his little legs can carry him to keep that wheel spinning. I have found myself in that season lately and it’s caused me to be more intentional about pausing my life for a moment… because sometimes a moment is all you get!

In the past two years my husband and I have picked up our life with everything we built in one city and moved four hours south. We started over from scratch… new jobs, graduate school, new church, new home. In fact the only things that remained the same were the fact that we were still married to each other, our two cars, and our two cats. As soon as we arrived in the area we hit the ground running. The moving van hadn’t even arrived before I started working. John started a new job in full time ministry and seminary within a week and we were moving into a new home. We hadn’t even had a chance to get remotely settled before life took off at warp speed. I felt scatter brained, overwhelmed and exhausted for months. Wouldn’t you know that during the first few months of our transition God would call us to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia?

John at his new job.

There were all kinds of good reasons why we shouldn’t. The timing was awful. We needed to get settled. John was so busy with school. We didn’t have the money. But there was one reason we should: it was God’s plan for us and it became clear His plan was right there and then. So we put in our application and started the process. So now added to our already crazy lives was a mountain of paperwork, home study visits, adoption education, and fundraising planning and events. I was barely treading water.

Filling out more adoption paperwork

One day I just stopped everything. I felt like I was on the verge of a breakdown. So I took the day to pray and think about all the “stuff” in my life. I got a pen and paper and wrote it all down. Then I went through and circled everything that was a priority and crossed the rest out. If it wasn’t something that I had to do then it was off the list. I looked at what I had left and put it in order of priority.

Here’s what I ended up with:

1. Cultivating my relationship with Christ

2. Cultivating my marriage

3. Bringing our son home (adoption paperwork, fundraising, prayer)

4. Youth ministry (especially with the teen girls)

5. My job

I realized that the thing that I cared the least about and the thing that was the least important to me was the very thing I spent the most hours a week doing. So I went to my boss at the end of the week (after talking and praying with my husband) and I gave notice. Six weeks later I worked my last day. Again, there were plenty of reasons why this was a bad idea. After all, we needed the money to bring our son home. But God showed his blessing on this by providing every cent we needed for our adoption and for daily life.

The next several months were just as busy, but less stressful. Within 11 months of my last day at work we pulled into our driveway with our brand new five month old son. That was four months ago.

I believe that a large part of why God led me to quit my job so far in advance to motherhood was that it gave me the time to cultivate my relationship with God,and to actively pray for my son. It allowed my husband and I time together to just be the two of us. It allowed me to prepare as much as possible for motherhood so I didn’t walk straight into it completely stressed out.

The days are busier than ever now. Added to everything else in our lives is our little boy (who just started crawling), and my new blog design business. But, I’ve found a couple practical ways to pause for a moment and take a time out…

I always pray and worship while I rock my son to sleep. I do this for each nap and at bed time. I will start by praying for him and our day and then I sing worship songs to my Savior. My son loves the singing as it soothes him to sleep, and I am able to connect with my God while loving on my son. It’s refreshing and nourishing to my soul.

The second thing I do is always take the first 15-20 minutes of his naptime for myself. The temptation to run around and get chores and such done is strong. But, I need the time to pause. So I don’t answer my phone or return calls, I don’t do any work, I don’t do dishes or laundry… I do something I want to do. That may be just sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in silence. I might read a book or my Bible. I might blog or read other blogs. The important thing is that I am relaxing and not worrying about anything for just a bit. I get to do this twice a day and it makes a world of difference.

The last but most important thing I would share from my daily life is that I have found morning time with the Lord to be crucial. It sets the tone for the whole day. I know many mothers wake up before their children to get alone with God, but I need the sleep far too much! Instead, we get up when our son does and make the coffee and his bottle. He snuggles in bed with us for a good 30 minutes before we head out to the living room. At that time I get his toys out and he plays on the floor while I sit nearby on the couch with my coffee, Bible, and journal. I read a chapter of whatever book of the Bible I’m in and then I write my observations and how I can apply the truth I’ve learned to my life in my journal. Then I get out a small list I keep and pray. This puts me in the right frame of mind for my day. I am encouraged and motivated to be a Godly wife and mother. I am nourished and fed to spend the rest of the day pouring out… and by giving the day to God I am able to keep the hamster wheel spinning for one more day.

Please take a moment and visit Poppie Lane. You will be so glad that you did!

What do you do in your quiet moments?

 
 

Pause Life for a Moment- Bungalow ’56

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I first came across Bunaglow ‘56 on Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday link up. I loved her photos, her sense of humor and her joy of life. Since then I have found her on many blog lists, I guess that there are many who adore her. I hope you will be joining the throng of people that love her just as I have.

Please stop by her blog and share your thoughts on her wonderful post.

Pause Life for a Moment
Life Will Get Busier
Grandma with my trio, the day Youngest was born.

You know, they always said, “Life will get busier.”

Who were “they” you’re wondering?
Grandmas, aunties, middle aged women in the produce aisle.
Pretty much all the I women I knew who had older children.
And as I would haul the car seat (with Youngest in it) out of the vehicle while dropping off Eldest at school and Middlest at Playschool, I would mumble to myself that they mustn’t have known what they were talking about.Or at the very least, just didn’t remember what life was like with little ones.
How could anyone be busier than a mom with three little kids?
My life was chaos.
Busier?
It wasn’t possible.
Fast forward eight years, and here I sit with an almost 16 year old, an eleven year old and an eight year old.
Life is busy.
Every day seems to be busier than the last.

How could this be?

I no longer have to tie shoes or pour milk into sippy cups.
No one is clamoring at my leg to read a story or calling me to wipe a bum.
Yet I feel as though life has taken off and I’m in a race I didn’t train for.
As I pondered this hamster’s wheel I seem to be on.
I realized life seems more busy now, because it has grown outside the four walls of our Bungalow.
No longer is the busyness contained.
My children now have lives of their own.
Soccer tournaments in a city five hours away.
Piano lessons to be driven to.
Swimming lessons.
Conditioning.
Meeting up with friends.
Birthday parties.
The calendar is filled with their activities,
and The Agronomist and I share taxi duty.
I know… an old cliche.
But oh so very true.
With all the coming and going I didn’t like how our home was becoming

a weigh station where everyone dropped their things ate and slept.
I needed to do something.
They needed to stay home with me.
Homeschooling was sounding better and better.
I had always loved the little house on the prairie series.
Possibly moving to a remote Elk farm might do the trick.
But somehow I knew I might not be able to do this democratically.
So I decided to work within the parameters of our current
life.
I haven’t mastered it quite yet.
But slowly I am realizing it is in the art of grabbing the moments.

Moments can be found if you look for them.
A cup of tea as they unwind from school.
Watching a Mythbusters together before supper.
Reading a chapter of Harry Potter out loud to her even though she can read it herself.
Saying yes to cooking some cupcakes even if it is awfully close to bedtime.
I’m holding on to the moments and trying to find opportunities for more.
Because I know these busy days will be over in another eight short years.
Instead I am trying to pause life for a moment several times each day,so that rather than feeling like I’m in a race I am ill prepared for,
I can walk the course instead…
and enjoy the scenery with my family.
xoxo,

Pause Life for a Moment- Mama Dweeb

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Mama Dweeb (Annie) is as sweet as she is wise. I met her at the Type A Conference last fall at breakfast and she was so kind to me. What a special lady! I am thrilled that she is sharing with you today.
I work hard. Always have. I graduated high school at 17 years old, got my first job and moved into college dorms one month after graduation. From then on I had at least 2-3 jobs while in college full time.

I cannot take a break.

Now I am a mother of 3 kids – 4 year-old-daughter, 2 year-old-son and 5 month old daughter. I blog full time and volunteer at my church and in my community.

I cannot take a break.

And now, with the internet I really can’t take a break. It is there, 24/7. Tasks needing accomplished, tweets, posts, comments, photos! Constant – yet enjoyable. Working is how I have defined my success my entire life. Taking a break was for the lazy. The busier I was the happier I was and, in my eyes, successful.

But with such young children, if I do not take a break more often, I will miss important things. Very important things. Just the other day, my internet broke. I was without the ability to get online (save for my email on my phone) all day.

I played with my kids. I always play with them. But with the computer off, I really played. My 4 year old and I worked on her letters and numbers literally all day long. My 2 year old and I did sword fights and the baby was just cute.

Now that the internet is back on, I am taking more breaks. I can still be successful, I just have to take more and longer breaks. I am learning how to manage my time better and spend quality time with my children while they are awake.

I still work very hard at my blog. But now, I focus on them better. Focus, like the 50mm lens of a DSLR, blurring out the peripheral. I hone in on them, their grins, their minds expanding. Amazing what I miss when I am right here.

About the Author:

Annie works full time on her Kansas Blog MamaDweeb.com. She lives in Kansas with her 3 kids and loving husband. You can find her on twitter @MamaDweeb, she loves to chat about all things parenting and life!

 
 

Pause Life for a Moment- Spilled: Because My Cup Overflows

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Sometimes you read a blog and feel you know its writer.  Spilled: Because My Cup Overflows is one of those bloggers for me. After reading about her boys and the joy and challenges they bring I feel I know her. Her writing flows. Her pictures draw you in to take a peek into her family life. You are so going to love the guest post she wrote. I have walked in her shoes and want to choose to wear them in a new way just as she has.
Pause Life for a Moment
I never thought of myself as an angry person.
According to all the stories my parents–and others who knew me in those days–tell me of my growing-up years, I was a calm, easy-going, eager-to-please child who never threw temper tantrums and who got along well with siblings and friends. When I lived in San Diego as a young married woman and had to learn to drive on busy, multi-lane highways (so different from the country roads surrounding my parents’ home, where the biggest traffic challenge was passing the horses and buggies of Old Order Mennonites!), I didn’t experience the road rage that is so common in southern California. Even when we lived in Israel and dealt with the frustrations of life in an intense foreign culture, my husband was the one who occasionally blew his top and vented his anger on, for example, a landlord who wasn’t doing anything about the lack of electricity in our apartment, in the middle of a scorching summer, in a very hot climate, in which our young son was suffering (albeit mildly) because of the landlord’s negligence.
I don’t intend, by these examples, to give the impression that I was perfect in this area and never got frustrated; but I do believe it’s fair to say that anger wasn’t one of my besetting sins.
But then I had children. And, as we all know, that changes everything.
When exactly did my struggle with anger begin? When my first child was a baby? No, I
don’t think so. I may have been extra-tired and overly-worried, but I don’t remember my frustration level being through the roof. I do know, however, that by the time my first child was a preschooler and my second a toddler, I had a problem: a daily struggle with anger.
To be honest, I didn’t even like to admit it was anger. “I’m stressed!” I would say. “I feel really frustrated!” But at the root of that, when I was transparent enough to peel off the false labels I attached to it, lay an ugly, rotten, pile of…yes…anger.
Thankfully, my anger was controlled by some heavy-duty fences, and those boundaries stayed intact: no physical violence against my children, no calling them names, no yelling and screaming and cursing. But there was one tell-tale sign that I couldn’t cover up, no matter how hard I tried to maintain a facade of being calm, cool, and collected.
There was an edge in my voice. Kids are smart, you know? It didn’t take my sons long to realize that when they heard that particular tone,Mommy was mad.
Is there anything more heart-breaking than asking your children what they see in you that you should change and hearing them say, “Your harsh words”? How many times have I apologized to a sad-hearted child–”I’m sorry I spoke harshly to you”–and heard the quiet response, “That’s OK, Mommy. I forgive you”?
In the years since I first admitted to myself that, when it came to my children, I had an anger problem, I have searched for the answer, the solution to my wrath, the antidote to the poison-before it does lasting harm to my children (of whom there are now four–all dearly-loved boys! ). I haven’t discovered a magic cure, but I have found grace for the journey. And sometimes, a light breaks forth and shines unexpectedly, providing illumination for the next step of the path to peaceful motherhood. Here is my latest insight…
One day recently, I began my morning by having this question pop into my head: Is there anything so important today that would justify me getting angry with my children? Is there any meeting or appointment so vital that it would be better for me to get that horrible edge in my voice as I rushed my children along rather than be late to it? Is there any household task so essential that it would validate my frustration if my sons interrupt or distract me from it? Is there anything–ANYTHING at all–crucial enough to be worth the cost of me getting angry?
Because there is a cost. There always is, usually paid in the downcast glances and slumped shoulders of little ones whose hearts bleed silently when Mommy speaks harshly.
When I ask myself those questions, the answer is painfully obvious. No! There is nothing that important! The cost of anger is too high; I refuse to pay it.
Because of that decision, I am better equipped to pause life for a moment as I go into my dressing room, so to speak–to shed the garments of stress and anxiety and pressure and frustration and anger, and to clothe myself with, as Paul instructs us in Colossians 4:12, “tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”
Forget name brands–those are the kinds of clothes I long for! 🙂
What are you longing for?

 

Pause Life for a Moment- Things I Can’t Say

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Pause Life for a Moment
 
 Shell of Things I Can’t Say is wonderful and it is hard to put into words how amazing she is. I met her in real life at the Type A Mom Conference last fall and she was as friendly, a personable and real as you would think she is after reading her posts. I went to the conference hoping to learn about blogging and I did. A lot of what I learned was from Shell. She is not a blogger who is guarded about the secrets to her success. Shell shared blogging insights I really needed to hear to move forward in blogging. I will be forever thankful that she is who she is and she shares it with others.
 
So much of my time as a mom, I was looking forward to an event in the future:
 
*When my baby would sleep through the night
 
*When my baby could walk
 
*When the next baby was born
 
*When the NEXT baby was born
 
*When all my boys are out of diapers
 
*When we’re past the stroller stage
 
*When all my boys are in school
 
Thinking everything would get simpler and easier.
 
Rush, rush, rush through all the frantic moments.
 
But then I take a good look at my boys. My oldest, who is finishing his first year of kindergarten. My middle, who just turned five. My BABY who is turning 3 in a few weeks.
 
And I realize that I don’t have babies any more. My boys are getting so big.
 
And I want to pause life for a moment.
 
Pause it while they still fit in my lap.
 
Pause it while they still want me to tuck them in at night.
 
Pause it while they still want to hug me in front of their friends.

 

Pause it while they think I’m the most beautiful girl in the world.
 
Pause it while they are my little boys.
 
Time is moving fast enough. I don’t need to wish away their childhoods, just to get to the “easy” stuff.

 

 Something tells me it’s not going to be easy, anyway.

 
So, I’d like to pause life for a moment and enjoy my babies. I just won’t call them that where they can hear.
 
Please stop by Things I Can’t Say and let Shell know how much you have enjoyed this post. 

 

 
 
 

 

 

Pausing Life for a Moment- Tammy’s Two Cents

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Pause Life for a Moment

I met Tammy of Tammy’s Two Cents through Pretty Pink Momma. One day Pretty Pink Momma asked her readers to stop by and visit her friend Tammy’s blog. After visiting it that Friday, I found myself making nearly daily visits.. She writes product reviews, host giveaways, and share about her family life. I love reading about her children and the wonderful times her family has exploring the Salvation Army store. If there is a deal to be found there on a Friday night, they will find it.

 

Beyond reading her blog, I look forward to her e-mails. She writes me several times a week about comments I have left on her blog or she has left on mine. I would honestly have to say she is one of my closest blogging friends.

The post she wrote is open and very honest about a struggle in her life. I hope you will not only read her words appreciating that fact, but will leave her a comment on her blog letting her know how her words have affected you.

 

When I think about the word “Pause” I am reminded of my favorite possession as a teenager…my cassette tape recorder (yea, I’m old). I loved listening to my music. If my sister, mom or dad came in my room, I would quickly hit the pause button so I wouldn’t miss any part of my favorite songs.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could pause that recorder anywhere we want in life? Maybe even fast forward through a bad relationship or rewind a favorite moment in life like a wedding or a birth? My pause button was activated a few years ago and I wish with all my being I could have turned that pause off.
Through sobs and tears, I heard the doctor say “You are suffering from Depression and Anxiety.” Talk about my pause button being pushed! I didn’t quite understand why the doctor was saying this because I had come in to see her about not being able to bounce back from the flu. I walked into the doctor’s office that afternoon totally unaware that I was suffering from anything other than flu. I knew I couldn’t eat, was extremely emotional (cried almost every morning) lost my interest in shopping, didn’t want to leave home and so much more.

She sent me in for an ultrasound and a few blood tests but said I had all the signs of depression.

Depression was not on my play list. I had so much going for me at the time…a wonderful family, was the class coordinator for my daughter’s class, active in Bible Study, so to have my pause button suddenly pushed, I had a hard time with it. Looking back it was a pause that I guess I needed. I have always put others first in my life, trying to make everyone comfortable and happy. I forgot about myself, I forgot to put myself first…I am the one I needed to take care of. As women we are born nurturers, why do we forget to nurture ourselves? I have come a long way in the last two years. The depression is not gone but it is not prominent in my life. I am now able to manage it without medication because I know the signs. Every once in awhile the anxiety will creep back in to my daily life, it reminds me that I am still in the process of learning on how to not let “everything” get to me. Letting everything get to me is my trigger.

I have learned that I need to push my pause button frequently…to take the time for me! I now make sure I get out of the house, have lunch with the girls, nights out with my best friend, date night…the list goes on! Learn from my pause in life and take the time for YOU!!

 

 

Pause Life for a Moment- Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts

By

Pause Life for a Moment

 

I have been reading the Southern Institute for Domestic Arts and Crafts for over a year. I have learned so much about home life from Jenny. She has a unique talent for choosing beautiful fabrics to create clothing, a wonderful taste for food creations, a joy for motherhood, a love of Christ and so much more.

After reading her Pause Life for a Moment post, please stop by and visit her wonderful blog.

photo credit

There are times in life when you are forced to pause from the everyday busyness that you are accustomed to.  When I think of times in my life when there were peaceful pauses, I think of the first few weeks after each of my children were born.  There’s that time after you’ve returned home from the hospital, when your body is recovering and you are adjusting to life with a new little person, when life seems a bit suspended.  My favorite times were the middle of the night feedings.  It wasn’t that I loved being up in the middle of the night, it was that I loved being up in the middle of the night with a newborn.  It was just us, the world outside quiet with sleep, the sound of the clock ticking, the gentle snores of other members of the family who are fast asleep.  These were precious moments, times of bonding that I will always cherish.  At those moments it feels like nothing else matters but making that newest blessing know that they are loved and cared for.  Just a mother feeding her child, like mothers have done since the beginning of time.

 

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