Day 26 of Lent 2020

I love making lists. It makes me feel like I can organize the chaos in my life when I can make a list and check off one item one by one. I have lists for every part of my life. Groceries, chores, jobs, and kiddos are all on my list but I am forgetting one thing on my lists…me.

During this time, March 2020, we are quarantined to our homes to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Businesses are closed. Schools are closed. Everything is at a standstill. It is the perfect time to give up busyness.

And yet, my list is long. I have school stuff I want to accomplish. I have things around the house I haven’t finished yet. I feel as if there still isn’t enough time in the day to complete it all. It’s hard for me to schedule a time for myself.

We have to take time to rest to take care of ourselves. I have often felt guilty to take a nap, play a game, or work on a puzzle during the day. I think that if my husband or sons see me doing those things that they think I’m not doing my job as a wife and mother and I am being lazy. And yet, I don’t feel that way about them when they do it.

We need to take time for ourselves. If we stay busy all the time our work and duties will suffer in the long term. In some countries, it is required during the day to take a rest. They have found out that productivity is higher when there is rest time during the day.

So how can we schedule rest time during our day? We can set a time to work on our list and when that time is up we table the rest to the next day. We can make our lists shorter, break it up into smaller pieces. We can plan breaks into our lists throughout the day.

Whatever your plan is, take time for you. Take time to be thankful for what you have. For when we rest, we can be stronger, healthier, and more productive for ourselves and our families.