Spinning plates

The last couple of weeks life has felt sometimes a little bit too full. Its mostly all good things but it can feel like a frantic struggle to keep lots of plates spinning at lightning speed and the thought of dropping any is too much. It came to a head when I was cooking dinner one night and for some reason the fish was just not cooking. It was frozen fish in a pyrex dish in the oven – I don’t know maybe that is just not a thing to do anyway it ended up with me in tears. I knew what I had to do because I’ve been here before.

I remember a while back during lockdown I was trying to work from home and I just couldn’t work out this problem. I was getting more and more flustered so I thought I’ll just have a look at the bible reading for the day and it was Pslam 37v7-9 and I read “Do not fret, it leads only to evil” Now I was actually pretty angry after reading this verse. I mean that week the nursery boiler had broken so I was trying to work and look after 2 children, while home school a third, while being pregnant and I felt I didn’t have a clue how to do my job and here I’m being told don’t fret because its going to turn to evil!!! But I backed up a little and read “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for him" Thankfully that day the girls were back in nursery and Harry was with our childcare bubble so I was able to go and lie down. I did have a bit of attitude and was like “fine God I’m going to rest in you like that’s going to help”. After about half an hour I had this sense of peace. The work problem had not gone away, I was still exhausted from being pregnant, the house was still a mess but I was at peace. God was right I needed His presence – who knew!

I’m often reminded of this when I get to the point of bursting and it actually makes me laugh now when I hear a little voice saying “Don’t fret, it leads only to evil” There’s always too many plates to spin and inevitably a few are on the floor at any given time but I think the main thing is don’t fret and take time with God. After the fish incident Tim kindly offered to put the kids to bed Sunday night so I could go to church and the service was labeled a time to pause and receive which was ideal.

We had a birthday this week which was one of the fun plates I was spinning - planning a party. My wonderful, bright, beautiful, funny little whirlwind, Sophie turned 3. I saw a quote on facebook this week which I thought was rather sad “As a mum, I don’t actually participate in the family fun activities we do. I just plan them, record them, and clean up after them” That is not a reality I want so I’ll not fret about the plates that are on the floor and just enjoy my baby girl turning three.