Juggling Glass Balls

Once in a while I feel like I've gotten in WAY over my head and my "to do" list takes on a life of its own. This is usually my own fault as I am the one who over-schedules my days and sets up a standard for myself that is far too high for even Superwoman to achieve. I start to "drop the ball" so to speak by missing appointments, forgetting to be where I said I would be, not following through on something I promised to do etc.

Several years ago I was in a church meeting and the lady giving the lesson talked about the juggling act we all do. We juggle the kids, house, bills, exercise, scripture study and church callings (service), marriage, temple attendance......well, you get the idea. Sometimes we start to feel overwhelmed and start dropping balls. It happens to everyone, but the important thing is that we DON'T DROP THE GLASS BALLS. Those are the important ones and as long as we keep them going, everything else will be alright.

I've been reflecting on this a lot lately and trying to decide what my "Glass Balls". I guess for me it is the relationship I have with my family and friends, my personal relationship with my Heavenly Father and my health. As long as I keep those precious Glass Balls in the air, the rest can hit the ground once in a while!

Charlie

Speaking of joy, the newest member of our family, Charlie Decker Wallace brings us PURE JOY every day!! I'll be honest. We were not planning to have anymore kids and were surprised when we learned there was another little one coming along to join us. Now that he is here, I am so in love with the little angle that I can't even imagine life without him. I'm so grateful that my life doesn't always follow the plan that I invent for myself!

Charlie was born on January 14th. 6 lb. 13 oz. 19 inches long. He had to spend the first week of his life in the NICU due to some lung trouble. He has been a mellow and happy baby from the start. Thank goodness I have an easy one this time!! ( I think I earned it.) Charlie is now a very chubby baby as you can see, and I love every fat roll on him!

All of the kids LOVE him to pieces! Sometimes a little too much. Savannah is a huge help and loves to dress him, hold him, make him smile etc. Thank Heavens she is old enough this time as I really don't know what I'd do without her!

A Quest For Joy

Around Christmas time my good friend Stacy Poll and I were reminiscing about the "good old days". Stacy and I met in Jr. High and have been BFF's ever since. We used to have so much fun. Clean fun of coarse : )! But now in the present we both realized that we don't have fun anymore. It's just work. We've forgotten how to have joy. So we decided that our New Years resolution should be to go on a Quest to find Joy again. So now that it's nearly June I've decided to get started! HEY, don't judge, I've been busy. Here is a quick re-cap of our past year.

We sold our house in Illinois.........

.......and moved in with Jeremy's parents.


4 months later we moved to this tiny little rental home. It had 1 bathroom, no dishwasher and no disposal. We called it the "mud hut" We were so very crammed in there.



We also began building our new home in Mountain Green.



And we had this. (His name is Charlie and he's very sweet).


Then we FINALLY moved in to our house. It is beautiful and I love everything about it!!!

What a great year full of so many things to be joyful about!! And yet after this long journey I find myself completely exhausted, fuzzy brained and unable to be productive. Obviously there are many parts to a joyful life and there needs to be balance. Spiritual, emotional, physical, social. I'm going to take it one step at a time and not necessarily in order of most important.

STEP 1
Energy. Must find more energy!! All of the moving, pregnancy and Charlie waking up at night has really taken it's toll. I'm sure it's not that I'm getting old. Not to mention that I haven't been eating very well so this is where I've decided to start. A friend of mine has a blog about healthy eating and I got some great ideas/reminders from her. She suggested smoothies every day which is a great way to get in all of those vitamins and nutrients we need (and sneak them to the kids). She also suggested setting out a veggie tray during the day before dinner. The kids are so hungry at that time they'll eat anything! Ok, who am I kidding....I will too. Usually I'm sneaking some chocolate while fixing dinner, but I'm willing to mend my ways : )

Frozen grapes, carrots, spinach, yogurt, watermelon, cantaloupe, lemon and lime juice, strawberries, honey and protein powder (Shaklee of coarse!) The kids liked it and I put the leftover in some glass jars. They are supposed to stay good for a few days, but we finished it off by the end of the day!

I'm off to the store today to get veggies for the veggie tray!