DE-STRESS ALREADY!

Good morning, Mom!  It's Monday!!

Like most people's homes, things have been pretty crazy around here.  Even more so than usual.  To sum up:  car died-as in DEAD, dryer broke, vacuum broke, I have morning sickness the worst EVER 24/7, lost my wedding ring...pretty much a country song!  I keep telling myself to breathe and calm down.  I do deep breathing often to slow my heart.  BUT.  I have discovered a secret all purpose de-stresser!!  Talking one night, my husband and I came up with a plan that has changed our perspective.  Once a week, we sit down (in the evening when the kids are in bed and it's finally QUIET,) and have a talk.  We list on a piece of paper all the things that stress us out.  (One column for each of us.)  Underneath we write what we can do about each item.  The deal is to do all the things we CAN do, and then forget it...as much as possible.  HOLY COW, you guys, this has been amazing.  Some of the things that were bothering me I didn't want to bring up at first because I didn't want to stress my husband any more than a father of almost 7 should be already.  It created a really safe, non-confrontational venue to discuss hard topics.  Now we share burdens and work on them together.  Often times the only thing we can do is pray.  But it's enough to know we are truly doing all we CAN do.  I know we're not the first to try this, but I'm so excited about it, I had to share it.