Trying to Make it Another Day

Life as a stay-at-home mom is not all that glamorous. We are expected to look after everybody in the house, to nurture, comfort, feed, clean up after and be there for several human beings. This is all in addition to our outside social commitments, extended family and such.

Yesterday was rough. Shawn was supposed to work an extra three hours after work to cover for a guy he works with. Nearing the end of three hours, a big storm rolled in, downing power lines and bringing with it lightning that struck a house in H'ville. Shawn was called out with his captain to fight a structure fire. It was a relatively small and easy to put out fire, but afterwards they had many calls due to downed power lines, lightning strikes, fallen trees and fire alarms. Shawn said in all they had 23 calls to the Emergency Management Services department last evening.

Being the ever dutiful wife (ha!), I thought I would wait up for him. Okay, so really there was a late episode of Cold Case Files I was watching. He came home at almost 1, exhausted. I, too, was exhausted as the kids had been very demanding all day. We lay down in bed and Shawn said he wasn't feeling quite well. Fast forward about 30 minutes and Shawn is majorly laid up in the bathroom with some kind of food poisoning (or perhaps the exposure to the smoke of the fire and working 16 straight hours?). He felt better after his bathroom trip, but I was wired and worried that my kids or I would get sick, too. I guess it was something he ate at work because all of us are okay. Today he is much better.

But of course since I got about 3 hours of sleep (Claire slept fretfully), today the kids are whiny and cranky. I'm still exhausted, but I know that if I lay down I will be needed by somebody again.

I have to remember over and over that God is the only reason I can do any of this. I need Him so much right now because sometimes days are a struggle to get through. I know this is only a season of my life and thankfully, there are times when it doesn't seem like so much work. There are days when I so love and enjoy being a mother and a wife; running an entire household, tending to those that need tending.

Lord, help me get through this day that doesn't feel quite so warm and fuzzy.