Guest Post: Kristance

My next guest blogger is the lovely Kristance from Dance Your Way Back to Zion.
Kristance is one of the first women I connected with when I entered this big blogging
world.  She is one of the most supportive and encouraging friends and I absolutely adore
her.  She is a wife and loving mama to three precious babies and inspires me daily.
Visit her sweet blog soon, you will love her!

 

hey y'all, i'm kristance and i write a little blog called dance your way back to Zion! i'm a
Jesus loving, sweets baking, tea drinking, wife, and mother to Isaiah (3 years), Eleanor
(2 years), and Jackson (3months). i'm so happy to be guest posting for Liv today! i've been
so blessed by the words of encouragement, wit, and wisdom that appear on her blog on a
daily basis!

 i want to talk to  you for a few minutes today about "me time". i'm a working mom with
three kids under the age of 4. what time isn't taken up by working is taken up by my
kids. (which don't get me wrong, i absolutely LOVE) but i felt like i was losing my identity.
at some point i stopped being "kristance" and started becoming "Isaiah, Eleanor,
and Jackson's mom" and "Mike's wife". this started to produce a little bitterness in me.
for some reason i thought that wanting to have a little time for myself (where i
wasn't scrubbing poop out of the carpet, wiping noses, being climbed on, or hearing
constant noise) would make me a bad mom. i mean, i'm supposed to want to spend all
my time with my little blessings aren't i?

 the thing is; that bitterness that i mentioned earlier, it started to consume me. (i'm not
proud of it, but it needs to be said) i was not pleasant to be around because i was so
unhappy with myself and my life. one day while i was crying out to God in my despair
one of my best friends texted me and asked if i wanted to go out with her that night.
divine intervention? absolutley. i decided to go out with her and do something for myself
for once. i mean when is the last time i went out by myself without any of the kids in tow? 
i couldn't even remember. mike and i rarely even go out on "dates" without the
kids.

 we went for half price appetizers at applebees (monday-thursday after 9 pm, baby!)
and when i returned home 2 hours later, i was a changed woman. i came to the
realization that it was ok to have some time for myself. in fact it was essential. it didn't
make me a bad mom and wife, it actually made me a better one.

 i'm not saying that you have to go out with your friends all the time, there are ways to
carve out time for yourself in very simple ways. (that's why i started blogging!) want to
know a secret? sometimes, on my days off, i leave the dishes in the sink and take a nap
when my kids nap! or take that time when my house is quiet and read a few chapters.
take some time for yourself today. you'll be glad you did.

hopefully this encouraged some of you! as moms, we're all in this together, right?