I have also been stuggling with inner peace and happiness.  Every 10 minutes my oldest claims she is bored and doesn’t want to do anything I suggest.  Uge!  Normally the mornings are quiet because the kids are in school.  Not now though.  Luckily the weather is cool so the heat isn’t keeping me awake at night.  A true blessing.

I -SO- needed to hear this today. It has been tough at my house, and last night was especially tough. Finding that peace in the midst of frustration is so hard. MCH: Thank you for suggesting thinking about Adoration - that is a great idea!!! There is also an “online Adoration” web cam site, where I could pull up Our Lord on the computer screen… something for me to consider too.

During my labor, I imagined my most favorite place - the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, AL. I suppose I should try that too!  Thanks ladies!!

Rachel,
Thank you for this post! Knowing I am not alone helps me to have more peace!
When things get really crazy, I play music. Anything I am in the mood for, from religious to Elvis. Also, I remember this is passing and they will be gone sooner than I think and I want to enjoy each moment!

I leave.
I have teens at home so I can go out without anyone (now that the baby is pretty much weaned) pretty much anytime.
I was having an extremely tough time a few months ago. Lots of bad feelings..I was angry all the time, sad, crying. Questioning everything and I was miserable, therefore everyone else in the family was suffering too.
I started walking everyday. I put my buds in, cranked the volume and headed out onto my shadeless street at full tilt, even jogged a little bit-which at my weight must have been quite a sight. I felt so much better when I got back.
One day after I got back from a walk I realized I had my first period since my baby was born. Lightbulb moment!! It had all been an incredibly bad case of PMS :D

Still, I take advantage of quiet moments alone doing things as simple as watering my plants or driving home from somewhere alone to appreciate the quiet and think and pray and re-energize.

i LOVE this blog.  i feel sane here.  knowing i am not the only one who gets a liitle
overwhelmed and stressed is a great encouragement and stress reliever

thank you so much

This post is the story of my life!  I do a few things:

1) Wangle a visit to the local cafe, even if it’s at night.  Even if I only have a half-hour there to read or write before they close, it’s so renewing to get away to a place that doesn’t have chores waiting to be done.  (Hubby knows that this is crucial for my sanity, so he is only too happy to take over bedtime story duties once in a while.)

2) Escape for a ten-minute walk around the block.  (Again, hubby needs to be home for this one ....)

3) Do a little PBS Kids-parenting.  Sometimes, I just need that!

4) Go to my prayer desk (a desk in our bedroom ... my personal space).  It’s good to have a little place that is dedicated just to my own inner life.

Good luck, Rachel!

I wish I could find inner peace.  Nothing seems to be working for me right now but looking through the suggestions I think I will try a few. This year has just been so incredibly hard.  Three of my relatives have died in the last 7 months (most recently my cousin 3 weeks ago).  We brought home our fourth child through adoption (a nearly 7 yr old boy at the time). And one of my two best friends died in February.  Sadness, upon sadness, upon stress, and sadness.  What I was doing when the kids were in school was going to the chapel at our parish 2 or 3 times a week to sit and pray, be quiet, talk to the Lord, and read some spiritual books.  It was truly the best few hours a week.  Now with kids home for the summer, I can’t do that.  I haven’t found a good substitute quiet time.  There is nothing that can replace the calm that comes from being in the presence of Our Lord.

this is the perfect topic for me being it’s summer and i’m a stay at home mom. Right now it’s 10:30pm and the 3 boys are wide awake- mainly due to the 3 yr old being wired from taking a late afternoon nap. I took him in the car today late afternoon, hoping to escape from my home of 5 children, to get some inner peace!!! Ha ha! I love adoration- although it’s a drive so it doesn’t happen often enough. I miss my school year routine of bible study on tues. and relevant radio in the mornings. I can’t listen to the radio with
the kids demands. many moms do quiet time in the afternoons- i should start that. i would love to have everyone in bed by 9pm but it doesn’t happen with the nice weather.

Rachel, I think the fact that you were able to write such a cute, true, and caring blog post like this is amazing under those circumstances.  You are such a good mom. Jesus loves you so much and is SO grateful to you for your service to Him.  He finds you absolutely beautiful in these moments because you are knee deep in the work He has set out for you - loving and caring for His boys and sweet girl He entrusted to you and Paul.  He cannot be outdone in generosity! This goes for all you mothers out there trying to do this very privelaged but oh-so-dang- hard job of mothering these little crazies.

I never underestimate the deep, cleansing breath . 

Or just trying to stop controlling everything. I know that if I can slow myself down, then I can somehow manage to get the kids into some semblance of calm.

I often ask God to bless my own mother who had seven of us. 

I am now a single mom to four kiddos, which I never, ever expected to be,  and so I’ve come to learn through blood, guts, and tears (millions of tears) that life is best lived moment to moment and leaning on Jesus when it gets to be too much to handle.  It’s really not a cliche’ that He will somehow lighten the load when it is just plain too heavy. He does.  And He gets it.  He knows how hard it is.

I am getting pretty savvy in making sure to take good care of myself every single time there is any little lull or break - a humorous thought, a quick read of a few pages of a good book, a quick text or call to my sisters or my best friend, a mental escape to a vacation spot, a sentence of prayer to Mary or Jesus, a Dove dark chocalte square with almonds, an extra long potty break, putting on my favorite lotion, etc. etc.

I look at all their pictures in frames and I see how fast they are growing, and how totally precious they are, and it helps me put the brakes on those imaginings of how nice it will be when I am not needed every single moment from the time they get up until they go to bed.  And being a single mom, they are gone every other weekend from friday evening until Sunday afternoon so I use that time for peace and catch up, but it comes with a price.  I ache at the differing lifestyles they are now split between and that they don’t get to Mass on those Sundays they are gone.  Again, here I’ve learned to leave it with Christ.  Believe me, I’d give my left arm to have them home everyday in an intact family with the same values between their parents (like it used to be).

I am lucky to be in a job ( I am a teacher) where I get to be home with my children in the summer and on all their breaks. Though it does get mind. boggling. nuts sometimes in these summer months, I am more grateful than not to be here with them.

sorry so long!