Time for Chocolate Relaxation

What do you do when you run out of pithy post titles??

Why you de-stress with chocolate, of course!! Dove chocolates, to be sure!!

If you have ever had one of those small dove chocolates, you would have noticed the quirky sayings inside of the wrapping. Hey!! Where else do I get ideas for posts?? You tell me?!

It has been a day, you tried cleaning up the kitchen in order to start the day. You were too tired last night to scrub and shine that sink and finish the dishes that appeared out-of-nowhere before going to bed. The baby wanted to nurse at 5am after keeping you up until two!! The toddler is roaring that big truck up and down the hall at 6am now that you settled your baby back down. 

Is there any rest for the weary??

So, you give up on sleep, try to read some verses from the Bible. Your Luke study will work, it is short and about 'Living Like Jesus', so that should help with the day you are beginning. 

But hey, your five year old is hungry and asking what is for breakfast!! So, you, being the wonderful mom that you are, whipped some pancakes up by 7am...but still in your jammies, you begin to wonder if life will ever be normal again??

Exercise?? Next to impossible...so if you are like me, you figure exercise is good for the kids too...and you turn the DVD on and have them do the moves with you!! The babies crawl around your legs while the older children complain and you feel like your day is spiraling down (real-to-life examples with 7 kiddos.)

So, still in your jammies (sorry Flylady) you clean up the kitchen (again) and start a load of laundry (or two) and keep chaos away from the laundry room but certainly not from your life as the baby is screaming and wanting to nurse again, the toddler is wanting (lacking?) attention and the other children are impatient to start school (more truthfully, they have escaped and are making tents out of blankets in the living room) and you are quickly loosing it!!

So, what's a mother to do??

I'll tell you what!! I am here to encourage you!! 

First, you just need a little mom time. Maybe just five minutes. If you don't have any chocolate in the house, then what you need to do is find where you stashed those chocolate chips and stealthily sneak some (because the sugar in the chocolate will make those kiddos hyperactive a.k.a. ADHD.) 

Now, sit down (in the bathroom if you have to) for about five minutes (otherwise known as, "Take Five") and grab your copy of Ann Voskamp's book, "One Thousand Gifts Devotional" and read one chapter and write a gift, something you are thankful for in the back. Why this book instead of her other one?? Because THAT one is good for when the children are sleeping. This one is good for when you need to "Take Five." The chapters are short and easy to read on the go with just a moment or two to spare between math questions or diaper changes.

You will feel better (at least until the sugar let down in the chocolate...easily solved...just have some more, LOL) and more encouraged in your thankfulness and ready to go back with your children. Don't go back, though, until you pray for a minute or two of those five minutes. It will do wonders!!

Where was that older woman when I was taking those 'chocolate fives' and forgetting to pray when my children were little?! Take my lessons learned and run with them. Prayer and chocolate works!!

I am in a writing mode today and eating chocolate to find those quirky sayings!! I used to eat chocolate when stressed. Now I am blessed (and still eating chocolate!!)

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~Judith~