Faith & Family Live!

Faith & Family Live is where everyday moms offer one another inspiration, support, and encouragement in Catholic living. Anyone grappling with the meaning of life or the cleaning of laundry is welcome here. Read the blog, check out our magazine, join our community, learn more about our mission, and come on in! READ MORE

Bloggers

Meet the Faith & Family bloggers. We invite you to join us in encouraging and helping the Faith & Family community grow in faith!

Danielle Bean

Danielle Bean
Danielle Bean, a mother of eight, is Editorial Director of Faith & Family. She is author of My Cup of Tea, Mom to Mom, Day to Day, and most recently Small Steps for Catholic Moms. Though she once struggled to separate her life and her work, the two …
Read My Posts

Rachel Balducci

Rachel Balducci
Rachel Balducci is married to Paul and they are the parents of five lively boys and one precious baby girl. She is the author of How Do You Tuck In A Superhero?, and is a newspaper columnist for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. For the past four years, she has …
Read My Posts

Lisa Hendey

Lisa Hendey
Lisa Hendey is the founder and editor of CatholicMom.com, a Catholic web site focusing on the Catholic faith, Catholic parenting and family life, and Catholic cultural topics. Most recently she has authored The Handbook for Catholic Moms. Lisa is also employed as webmaster for her parish web sites. …
Read My Posts

Arwen Mosher

Arwen Mosher
Arwen Mosher lives in southeastern Michigan with her husband Bryan and their young children Camilla and Blaise. She has a bachelor's degree in theology. She dreads laundry, craves sleep, loves to read novels and do logic puzzles, and can't live without tea. Her personal blog site is ABC Family. …
Read My Posts

Rebecca Teti

Rebecca Teti
Rebecca Teti is married to Dennis and has four children (3 boys, 1 girl) who -- like yours no doubt -- are pious and kind, gorgeous, and can spin flax into gold. A Washington, DC, native, she converted to Catholicism while an undergrad at the U. Dallas, where she double-majored in …
Read My Posts

Robyn Lee

Robyn Lee
Robyn Lee is the managing editor of Faith & Family magazine. She is (yikes!) an almost 30 year-old, single lady, living in Connecticut with her two cousins in a small bungalow-style kit house built by her great uncle in the 1950s. She also conveniently lives next door to her sister, brother-in-law …
Read My Posts

Hallie Lord

Hallie Lord
Hallie Lord married her dashing husband, Dan, in the fall of 2001 (the same year, coincidentally, that she joyfully converted to the Catholic faith). They now happily reside in the deep South with their two energetic boys and two very sassy girls. In her *ample* spare time, Hallie enjoys cheap wine, …
Read My Posts

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr. John Bartunek, LC

Fr John Bartunek, LC, STL, received his BA in History from Stanford University in 1990, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He comes from an evangelical Christian background and became a member of the Catholic Church in 1991. After college he worked as a high school history teacher, drama director, and …
Read My Posts

Guest Bloggers

Kate Lloyd

Kate Lloyd
Kate Lloyd is a rising senior, and a political science major at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in New Hampshire. While not in school, she lives in Whitehall PA, with her mom, dad, five sisters and little brother. She needs someone to write a piece about how it's possible to …
Read My Posts

Elizabeth Foss

Elizabeth Foss
Elizabeth Foss, an award winning columnist for the Arlington Catholic Herald, published her first book, Real Learning: Education in the Heart of My Home in 2003. The book is now in its third printing. Her popular blog, In the Heart of My Home is a source of inspiration and support for Catholic women …
Read My Posts

Get our FREE Daily Digest

Add Faith & Family to iTunes

 

When Things Calm Down…

Do you find yourself very busy these days?

This week has been a whirlwind of fun and excitement for our family.  Many of you know that I’m in the midst of the launch of my first book,  The Handbook for Catholic Moms: Nurturing Your Heart, Mind, Body and Soul.  Never in a million years would I have imagined that I—a stay at home mom from Fresno—would have some of the experiences that I’m living through these days.  Every moment is a true blessing - I wonder if God is tired of my thanking me every five minutes for these circumstances, large and small…

And yet I’m also praying up a storm for perseverance, for humility and for the strength to accomplish the many items on my “to do” list.  The most of important of those, of course, are related to serving my family.  While I’m in the midst of “book launch mania”, my son Eric is prepping for his Academic Decathlon competition tomorrow and has had three college interviews in the past week.  Adam is busy with all of his activities, and Greg is keeping us all moving along in his rock solid way.  I find myself wanting to remember each moment of this excitement, and yet so busy that it’s tough to savor it all.  Yesterday, I said to one of my friends, “When things calm down a bit, I will ___.”  She laughed at me—at the thought that my life would be “calm” any time soon.  In retrospect, she may have been right!  And yet, I wouldn’t trade this season—these moments of fullness and wonder—for anything.

Do you find yourself saying, “When things calm down, I will ___ (you fill in the blank!)”?  Do you think that if you can just get through the next week, the next month, the school year, or even just today, that life will be less hectic?  How do you cope with and still savor the extreme busyness that can fill a mom or dad’s waking moments?  How do you keep yourself “up” and on top of managing multiple priorities?  Do you have a saintly companion who helps you to stay motivated?


Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages

 

With three children ages 5 months, 4 1/2 & 6 years old busy is an understatement. I often feel pulled in all directions and wonder when it will ever calm down. But I constantly remind myself that it’s really not that bad and one day I will look back wondering when and how they grew up so fast.
I catch myself saying “when things calm down I’ll____” often. It can be anything from volunteering more at my childrens school, attending daily mass, gardening, doing more with my mom. You name it I’m sure I can find a lot of things I’d like to do today, tomorrow or next week (but just can’t).
I try not to feel guilty or upset about things I am not able to do very often these days. I also try to maintain a positive attitude and not get into a negative funk about what I’m not able to do or am missing out on. Finding time for prayer, even if it isn’t as often as I’d like, is also helpful and very comforting for keeping me “up”.

 

Melissa, thanks for your insights!  Knowing you and at least one of your precious little ones helps me to smile at the thought of you and your wonderful life as I’m reading this.  Let’s pray for one another and all of our “busy” friends during these wonderful days!

 

Hi Lisa!  This was my favorite line from this post: “...the launch of my FIRST book…” We’re loving this book—can’t wait for a sequel!

 

LOL - wow, that WAS optimistic of me, wasn’t it?!  Hugs Pat - you are such a wonderful friend!

 

As a teacher and a mom, it’s tough.  My job involves giving and giving, and then I come home to my boys and I give more.  I hate the fact that I’m often so burned out in the evenings that I can’t give my kids the attention they deserve.

So my refrain is, “When spring break comes, I will ...”

I am a huge Mary fan, so she helps.  At times, though, when it’s five PM and the boys are grabbing toys from each other’s hands and melting down and I’m frazzled out of my mind, I remember a line I once heard: “Mary only had one child, and really, how bad could He have been?”  smile

 

A month ago I was feeling very overwhelmed, but now things have really settled down.  I only have one child, and I only work 15 hours/week, so I would say that I’m much less busy than the average mom.  Last month, however, with Christmas and just having started my new part-time job, I was having trouble keeping my head above water.  Now I’m at the point where I’m caught up enough that I think it’s time to start an exercise program.  No more excuses! 

Lisa, I just ordered your book from Amazon, and I can’t wait to read it!

 

Claire - this is an exciting time for you!  “Only” 15 hours per week can still be a true juggling act!  Thanks so much for your kind support of my book - I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!

 

Lisa,  I JUST had an e-mail conversation with a new friend who is in the midst of launching a children’s book review sight about how to “do it all” without missing out on the little moments.  I’m going to forward this conversation string to her!  I can especially identify with not wanting to miss the last moments with the college-bound children.  So bittersweet to watch them flag their wings in preparation for flying on their own.  Our sixth child was born as our first and second were doing the college interviews and I’ll never forget the haivng morning sickness in several college cafeterias across the country!  At the time it seemed like just too much, but sitting here this morning with the now two year old throwing colored pencils all over the floor while I wait to Skype with the college kids, well, tears are welling up, and I wouldn’t change a thing about my always-on-the-go life.  There will be time to rest in heaven!

 

I’ve given up waiting for it to slow down, I just try and enjoy the slower moments.  But, I remember telling a friend once when my 4th child was one that I wanted to run the small local race the following summer, she just laughed and said, “Don’t you think you’ll be pregnant by then?”  She was right…3 kids later and I still haven’t done it.  Yeah, I know I could have still done it while pregnant, but I’m still trying to find time to exercise.  Maybe when things slow down…......my word is further55….I better find time before I can any further towards 55.

 

I love your laundry room Lisa! 

Something I’ve instituted this last year is a day of rest once a week.  It’s usually Sunday but not always.  It’s usually not all day but a good portion of it.  Most of the time I’m tired so I don’t do much but check blogs, watch TV, read, play games with my son.  Of course, I still do a load of laundry, the dishes and light cooking.  I have thoughts of doing spirtual reading but I’m usually ‘tuned’ out.  I’ve also stopped running myself ragged during the busy week.  I don’t run around like a chicken with my head chopped off- I go about my day keeping busy but not crazy-busy.  What gets done, gets done, what doesn’t, doesn’t.  The reason I’ve made these changes is because last year I ran myself ragged trying to do everything.  I went to the doctor because my heart was racing.  She had my cortisol levels (the stress hormone) checked and they were the second highest she’s seen in 15 years of practicing.  When I look back at it, my body felt horrible- like I was running on fumes but couldn’t stop.  Now that I have a better handle on how to handle busyness, I feel better equipped to meet the day in an authentic, healthy way.  Prayer throughout the day, humility, Mary, The Sacred Heart image, The Divine Mercy image have all helped me discover the God’s rythmn for my life.  I thank God for that wake up call. 

Thanks for asking Lisa!

 

We, your friends, are living this whirlwind and the excitement of your new book right along with you… this ‘whirlwind’ is exactly why I’m not challenging you to a game of Lexulous right now. grin

 

Lisa, your book is awesome!  It arrived a few days ago, and I saved it for today because we planned for my husband (who has President’s Day) to take my son to the indoor playground for the morning.  Normally on the rare event that I have the house to myself, I have to spend my time doing chores.  But this time I planned ahead and got all caught up so I could read your book with a cup of coffee.  It is an amazing resource.  I know that it’s something I will refer to often in the future.  Due to space issues (I have a small house), I only keep books that I know I will need to refer to repeatedly.  The others get passed on once I’m done reading them.  Yours is definitely a keeper!

 

Wow Claire- thank you so very much for your incredibly kind words!  You can’t believe how much it means to me that you would find the book so helpful.  Thanks for making my day!


Post a Comment

By submitting this form, you give Faith And Family Magazine permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.

Name:

Email:

Website:

I am commenting on the one originally posted by the author

Write your comment:

Please enter the word you see in the image below:


     

Remember my personal information.

Notify me of follow-up comments.