This week I headed to a meeting that was a life-sucker. The energy it required, the room filled with people that knew each other but I didn’t know, and the overwhelming feeling of isolation it left me with was a real drain. It reminded me of a times when my kids were young, and I got to attend their award ceremonies and activities. They were moments of celebration and excitement, but they also were life-suckers for me.
One night I attended a soap box derby race to cheer my kids on. They had spent time with a wonderful family building their race cars and everyone was excited. While the races happened, I was fully consumed in the joy of the moment but in between races I found myself sitting alone, observing the room, and feeling a bit isolated. It was a moment where being a single mom felt lonely even though I was in a room filled with people. As I felt my energy depleting and sadness entering in, I decided to do something life giving. After the race instead of going home with feelings of loneliness I called up a friend and asked if we could stop by, show her the soap box derby cars, and eat some ice cream.
When we got to her house, she made a huge deal out of the amazingly designed cars and scooped up bowls of ice cream. The visit only lasted about thirty minutes, but it changed the night for me. I went home feeling connected and my children had their love buckets filled.
There are many items on our calendars that may be great events, like a soap box derby race, and still be life-suckers for us. They leave us in a place of feeling down. I have found that if I can identify the events that may be like this ahead of time and ask myself what life-giving thing I can do to balance the down feelings, my heart stays in a much better place.
With love, Jennifer
We all get overwhelmed at times. One way to combat this is to ask a couple of questions about our calendars. Below are four steps to simplify your calendar and ensure that life-giving activities are penciled in.
Create or look at your monthly calendar. Make sure you work, school, activities, parenting schedule, etc. are all on the calendar.
Look at each activity and ask yourself: “Is this a MUST? What is the benefit of this calendar item? Is this a life-giving or life-sucking event?”.
Eliminate the items that are not musts and do not hold any benefit for you or your family.
Next to each item that you identified as a life-sucker think of something you can do that would be life-giving and schedule it in next to the life-suckers (Life-giving activities could include: time with a friend, a hot drink, a dance party with your kids, a drive to a favorite spot, a walk next to the water, a funny movie, etc.).
When we are pro-active with scheduling life-giving items into our calendar, we will find that we burn out less, feel more connected, and life seems a bit more manageable.
“I am so sick of running through the drive-thru and it is killing my budget.”
Are you looking for a cheap meal, that will fill-up your family and is still nutritious? Look no further, it is the baked potato!
A bag of potatoes can be washed up, poked with holes, wrapped in aluminum foil, and put to bake for 60 minutes at 425 degrees. Most weeks I cook up a whole bag of potatoes and then put them in the refrigerator to eat throughout the week. I tell my kids to take out a potato, warm it up and top it with anything they want. Here are some of our favorite toppings:
Butter with salt
Chili on top
Sour cream and shredded cheese
Leftover taco meat with shredded cheese
Chicken soup
Bacon, chives, shredded cheese
Hot sauce (one kid just loves this)