Spring Clean(se)

Y’all. I’m tired. Last week included:

• Kindergarten registration
• 3 lacrosse games (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday)
• Spring school pictures
• Spanish tutoring
• Dance practice
• A play
• A play date
• A hair appointment
• A vet appointment
• A birthday party

All of that plus work and my beloved Eat Plants and Prosper. Now, I truly am grateful for my crazy, busy, loud, messy life. God has blessed me with an amazing family. But last week was like those Allstate, “when life comes at you fast” commercials. I could barely keep up. Ok, I couldn’t keep up. I was surviving on Jesus, coffee and wine (in that order).

I would also like to point out that my kids have been in school since August 1st. So for us Georgians this current season is like that last semester of senior year. You know, where each day seems a week long. Time is dragging but the pace isn’t slowing down. At this point in the year parents have a some warped version of senioritis and bad.

Mamas with kids in school, read this!

Around this point every school year my sister, Darya, and I always refer back to am absolutely hilarious and remarkably accurate blog post by Jen Hatmaker aptly titled, “Worst End of the School Year Mom Ever." The blog post is old (originally posted in 2013) but universal truths are timeless, hence the reason my sister and I reference it yearly.

Mothers with kids in school, I implore you to read the post to boost your self esteem. Mothers with kids that graduated (congratulations!), read this, laugh, hug a mom you know in the midst of this madness and tell them to read it. Because they need it. They, like me, are currently holding it all together with a paper clips and prayers while muttering to themselves, “we can’t possibly have all this happening in one week.”

This about sums it up…

Something’s gotta give.

I realized in the midst of the craziness that I needed a reset. My nerves are bad child and unlike the mom above, we ain’t that close to the end of the school year. We’ve still got 2 months to go and I can’t keep getting dragged like this for that long. Gotta make a change up in here, up in here.

What it really boils down to is that THIS is life with kids. This is a life of a working wife and mom with kids 11 years apart. This is a life of someone pursuing her purpose. So there will be late nights and early days filled with school assignments (mine and the kids), projects, church, practice, date nights, work, games, blog posts, recipes and everything in between. This is what it means to live in this season of my life. So I can either fight it at every turn or learn to flow with it.

I’ll choose flow for $500 Alex.

Flowing means adjusting to this season so I can actually enjoy my life and not just survive it. Last week signified the first day of spring. Everyone associates spring with cleaning. But spring cleaning doesn’t just have to be for your house. It can and should be for your mind, body and spirit too. Spring is a time of renewal, growth and transformation. All things necessary when living in the mindset of flowing over forcing.

I can’t think of a better time for a refresh of the Daniel Fast we started the year with. With spring upon us and Easter on its way, why not refocus our minds and hearts to our true source of peace through which we find our strength and newness? Leading up to Easter, I’m honoring God and recommitting to the goals He gave me for this year with a Holy Week Fast. I hope you’ll join me for 7 days of prayer, meditation and fasting to welcome the spring season with all the grace it deserves.