Self-Care

Self-Care:  who knew?  I suck at it.  People are constantly telling you, ya gotta find time for yourself.  Well that’s a lot easier said than done.  Most people giving you this brilliant piece of advice either don’t have kids or have forgotten what it’s like to have them.  They definitely don’t have a little tornado like Payton tearing up their house.  Every time I sit down to take a little me-time, I start to feel guilty guilty.  After reading a book called Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis, I found that there really is such a thing as “mom guilt”.  I still wasn’t sure how to stop feeling guilty though.  I’d feel guilty if I wanted to go get a pedicure even though I knew Jimmy’d be fine with the girls for an hour here and there.  Jimmy can go right down to the basement and play an hour of video games no problem.  Why couldn’t I be more like that?  I had to have the house all picked up and clean before I could sit down to do anything.  By the time you’d get the house ready to relax, the buzzer was going off.  Relation time had expired.  I initially tried reading before bed; but that was impossible.  I’d be so worn out by the time I jumped in that I couldn’t focus on anything.  I’d play some solitaire on my ipad and pass the freak out. 

Jimmy actually helped me with my book reading issue.  He tells me one day that I was reading too depressing of books.  Okay.  Then what should I read?  He tells me Harry Potter.  I laugh and tell him he’s an idiot.  There’s no way I’ll go for that.  He tells me to try reading the third book first.  I tried reading it; but would find my mind wondering while I read… so I gave up.  He tells me to try listening to the book.  Once again, I grumble; but to my amazement, I end up loving it.  I listened to all seven books within a month.  Audio books are now my thing. 

I teach reading to special needs students; and most all of them hate reading.  We covered the Hunger Games a couple years ago; and they loved that.  Last year I tried out Harry Potter on them, the third book, and they enjoyed that as well.  The kids initially mumbled and grumbled the same as I did; but in the end, Harry wins out.  Harry Potter was so successful I found out that a couple of them continued on reading the series.  That’s a pretty huge win as a special needs reading teacher.