It’s ok to rest

Happy Thursday!

What a week

This has been a week for us. It started off good. My brother, who I haven’t seen in a few years came to visit! He was able to come with us to a fall festival with the kids and spend the night before he had to go back home to prepare for a move. Please keep him in your prayers as he is starting a new job soon, which requires him to move to a different state, and train in Florida for a few months before beginning.

Before he got here, I started breaking out in hives. After taking several rounds of Benadryl with no luck, I ended up going to Urgent care (the third time going in a month- first time was for me, second time was for Theresa and now this time for me again) to try to figure out what was causing them. I’m having some sort of allergic reaction to something but we can’t figure out what is causing it. Luckily, I got a shot and some medicine that has helped relieve the hives for now. Please pray that it is a one time thing and I won’t get any more!

Thursday morning our internet was out and I spent all morning talking to several representatives while taking care of the 3 kids at home and having to complete preschool drop off and pick up. I know we are very fortunate to even have internet and have this problem, but it’s still an inconvenience and presented a test of patience on my part (I don’t think I passed it either).

On top of everything, we’ve been having some depressing weather- it has been raining here a lot this week. This is also my first week decreasing my antidepressants even more (I’m now at a quarter dosage of what I was taking before). I decided to try to get off my medication and for the past few weeks I have been decreasing. It has been going well so far, despite a few off days. But with everything going on this past week, the stress is making my depression symptoms act up.

I’m not sharing all this to make you feel sorry for me, but just to shed some light on our reality. If you’ve been having a rough week, know you’re not alone! And hopefully things will be getting better from here 🙂

Taking a break

With all that being said, I wanted to talk about my day on Wednesday. I decided to take a break. The day before I was constantly driving back and forth driving the kids to school, taking Theresa to her doctor appointment, and then going to urgent care. Needless to say the next day I was worn out and tired of spending so much time in the car and in a rush to go places.

Christian had to travel for work and was not feeling great (we’ve all had colds) and wouldn’t have come home on time for us to go to our usual gym class. So I decided to just skip it and stay home. And while I will always advocate for exercise/moving our bodies because of how much it helps me, I also want to stress the importance of knowing when to take a break.

With everything going on this past week I have been stressed and have not been able to spend much time with the kids and be patient and present to them. By staying home instead of rushing out, I got to actually spend time with them. I had time to read books to them and make a craft that I have been wanting to do with them for weeks. It felt nice to actually have some time with them instead of feeling stressed out by rushing them out the door, and coming back home to feed them dinner and get them ready for bed.

Yesterday I did go to the gym, because I needed a stress reliever, and that choice was the best one for me yesterday and for my circumstances. It has been a journey for me to know when to take a break and I’m still learning. I just wanted to share my experience in the hope that it may help someone to know it’s okay to take a break from the usual busy routine to prioritize your mental health and family time together.

I hope you all have a great weekend!