First things first.

Last night when Jason and I were doing our Scripture reading together we read in Luke, about the Parable of Mary and Martha. And how one was upset because she was doing all the work, busy serving, and the other one was just sitting and listening to Jesus. She even went as far to ask Jesus to tell the other one to help. And Jesus says, speaking of the other one, the one listening "She chose the good part."

This got me thinking, how many times do I put the cleaning, the serving, the errands in front of "the good parts.?" I think that as woman, and especially LDS women, we sometimes feel like we are capable of everything, or rather, SHOULD be capable of everything. Also as women, we have this awful tendency to compare ourselves to others. I know I do, and sometimes blogging is so awful when it comes to this. Sometimes it's so easy for me to look at other's blogs and think to myself, "Why can't I take as good of pictures?" "Why can't Jason and I get away and go to exotic places all the time like her?" "How does she have the energy to take care of six kids, when I can barely do three?" or "What's wrong with me, this girl gets like 41 comments, and I am lucky to get 4!" and so forth. Sometimes I can turn my comparing into the positive, (this is one of my "talents" in life, making lemonade out of lemons!) and think "Okay, today I am going to be more like this girl on her blog, and do this, this and this." and sometimes that works. But other times it just wears at me, and instead of boosting me to be better, it stifles me.

Last night I was catching up on my Simple Abundance book. I haven't read much since May. I let life get in the way. So I was reading last night about "Repotting: Giving roots and yourself room to grow." I thought it kinda went with the parable too. In the book she talks about how we need to "re-pot" ourselves and grow. She said we need to do this when "we are tired before the day even begins, we can't visualize our dream anymore, we can't remember the last time we REALLY laughed, when we have absolutely nothing in the next 24 hours to look forward to." When we start to feel this way, and start to compare, and start putting these feelings of in-adequacy and trying to be "supermom" before what's important, is when we need to re-pot ourselves. She said to do this we just need something new, something exciting. Try a new craft, a new recipe, get dressed in the morning, write a letter, start a new book. "set the plant (you) in a larger pot. Not too large, we must not overwhelm but encourage. We must not take on the world but simply each task that is before me."

Now I know this is kind of two separate trains of thought, but in my mixed up head, it is the same. I need to set first things first. I need to not feel so overwhelmed by life and miss "the good part." I don't need to feel tired before I even get out of bed and I don't need to compare myself to someone else. I am a Mom, not a Super Mom, but just by being a Mom, that makes me super. I enjoy doing all the extra things for my family, the baking, the crafting, the teaching, that is what makes me feel like I have "re-potted" myself for the day. But some day's, like today, I am just so tired that I am honestly considering keeping Blaise home from school because I don't feel like getting him ready, doing homework, getting the other kids up and ready to walk him to school................these are the day's that I am missing out on the "good parts." These are the day's I need to put first things first.

I hope this post makes sense. I wrote it between trying to get Blaise to school.........Yes, I got him there! I have just been thinking about this stuff for awhile, and talking with friends about it. A lot of my friends are going through different things, divorce, debt, kid issues, depression, illnesses, heartache and we have all be talking and trying to figure out how to deal with our separate issues. Then last night reading, it all kind of came together in my head, and I had to write it down. I feel sane again, not that I have changed anything in my life, but now I feel like I put first things first, and I have a game plan. I can get through the next day, week, month because I know what I want. I want to choose the good parts. Really, what else matters?