Finding Joy

At the Relief Society (church women organization) conference on Saturday the the theme was, "Finding Joy in the Season of Your Life." Or basically finding joy with whatever God sends your way. Since God is good He gave me a chance to try it out this weekend. Saturday night at about midnight we discovered that our fridge was no longer working. Fortunately my parents live close by and still happened to be awake and just so happen to have a second fridge. Today we spent the majority of the day looking for a fridge and discovered only one store in town could deliver the fridge by tomorrow, fortunately it was also the store with the cheapest prices. Since we have no food we went out of dinner. The people at the drive through window at were taking a long time to get our food so Chris turned off the car and when tried to start it up again it wouldn't. so he had to push the car out of the drive through. As he passed the window the Taco Bell employee so kindly told him to have a nice day. Amidst all the fun we discover that our 4 year old is running a fever.
So, remembering the lessons taught at the conference I am working on finding the joy in this season. Here is what I have so far. I get a new refrigerator. This is especially exciting since I have never had a new fridge before. I really wanted one with more space to meet the needs of our growing family. Instead of getting one large fridge we bought two smaller ones, which ended up being more space and less money. Another joy I discovered during this process is the ability my husband and I have to work through trials together and find humor in the challenges we face. I am so grateful to have someone who can laugh with me through the tough times.
While this wasn't huge trial it was a major inconvenience and my attitude about the situation made a big difference. At each moment we have a choice whether to find joy or misery, for me, I choose to joy.

Highs and Lows

I came to a very important conclusion on Sunday. I was talking with my younger sister, she was going through a bit of a hard time and was wondering if maybe her hormones were out of whack or if she might be experiencing depression. She originally came to me for advice concerning some herbs she might be able to take that would help with either of the aforementioned maladies. As we talked it occurred to me that she wasn't experience depression or hormone fluctuation. What she was experiencing were the highs and lows that everyone experiences in life.
Dr. Christopher theorized that our bodies operate on a cycle of seven's. Seven days, seven week, seven months, seven years. On the seventh of each cycle our bodies need to rest and we experience sort of a breakdown. I think that this ties into life's up and downs. Every so often I experience a so-called breakdown. I'm tired, worn out, not motivated. I want a vacation and am longing for a break but small breaks in the evening are never quite enough. I feel a need for change. I no longer want to do the things that I normally do, dishes, laundry, basic care of the house and family. Basically all responsibilities of a mom. These feelings are followed by feelings of inadequacy and failure. I feel like a failure because I am not the kind of mom I think I should be, because I am tired of being a mom. This is about when I hit rock bottom and find a way to turn around. For me, the bounce back occurs when I kneel down and have a heart-to-heart talk with God. This helps me find a new joy and motivation and I return to my usual productive self.
Until my conversation with my sister I thought I was the only one to experience these "lows." But I'm not. My sister-in-law was sitting in on the conversation and said she also experienced these lows, which led me to the above conclusion. It also helped me realize that when I hit these lows that I don't need to get down on myself for not taking care of my family, I need to recognize it for what it is - my body telling me that it's time to take a break.