The journey continues…
Day 6:
Something I'm Thankful For: The Sabbath Day. As an Orthodox Jew, once a week I shut off all technology, cease all work, drawing, writing, etc. for 25 hours of peaceful bliss. No cars, no TV, no laptop, and best of all, NO SMART PHONES! :-D It’s a day I don’t have to worry about any money or work stresses, because there’s nothing I can do about it anyway... *and* I don’t have to feel guilty about it! I truly treasure the time to catch up on sleep, relax, eat yummy food, read, go to Synagogue, spend quality time with friends, and hang out with my kiddos without multitasking. I look forward all week to the opportunity to power down.
Challenge O' The Day: Nobody wants to be woken up in the middle of the night, but yesterday, when I got the 2:30 AM wake up scream by my baby girl, she at least had the decency to spend the next hour and a half being utterly adorable and delightful. As a bonus, she even went back to sleep with no fuss. I’m pretty sure she’s teething right now (I mean, I assume she’s going to be growing more than 4 teeth…) so I’ve been anticipating the recent bouts of fever and broken sleep. I just didn’t expect her to handle it so delightfully. The surprise is certainly one I can appreciate. But then I had to survive the rest of the day on the aforementioned broken sleep, and the challenge of getting all adults fed before the start of the big Jewish fast day called Tisha B’Av.
Lesson Learned: I was totally dreading yesterday evening all summer. Tisha B’Av is a major fast day to Jews, second behind Yom Kippur, and it began last night. Thanks to some great friends, we were invited over for the pre-fast meal, which made it significantly more fun. It was one less thing for me to worry about over the past (already overly-stressful) week, and the kids were super happy to have the play/dinner date. In the video I’d mentioned in my previous post that a friend had sent me about how to handle a lousy week, Dr. Michael Evans suggested that if you have to do a tough thing, pair it with something that gives you pleasure, aka “Temptation Bundling”. It’s been a great tip that I’m trying to implement as often as possible these days and has been extremely helpful. Now, to get through the remainder of the 25 hour fast…
Daily Insight: You can’t always control your kids, so it’s a pleasure when they leave you pleasantly surprised. Besides my baby girl being a delight at 2:30 AM, my son actually fell asleep (in an actual bed) this afternoon snuggling with me for a couple of hours (so I could attempt to make up the sleep I lost in the middle of the night!) Parenting is extremely exhausting, but I’m trying my best to keep focusing on those moments that give me strength.