Survival Mode

Holy moly! Its been a while since I've updated the blog. Ug, first it was the stomach flu that hit our house on Thanksgiving (at least we could eat as much as we wanted with no fear of weight gain!). Then colds, then the big Christmas flu fiasco, followed by just a regular cold and rounded out by another bout of stomach flu. Not to mention the shopping, holiday parties, and normal life in between.
I've noticed that the first thing to go by the wayside of regular life is service. The first thing I tend to do when I'm stressed with life is to it cut back on my volunteering, my trips to DI with donations, my visits to sick neighbors and friends with cookies or dinners, my posting on the MOPS blog. I call it "survival mode", its where the primary goal of the day is to make it through to the next day. If you have no idea what I'm talking about think about the first few weeks with a newborn when you are doing good to just get out of your PJ's, that's survival mode for me.
Then I'm slapped in the face with a little reality check like the upcoming Road Home project. While I'm whining about kids with runny noses, and too many holiday parties to attend; there is some mother out there that is fearful of whether her kids will have a warm place to stay, something to eat for the day, for safety. That is true survival mode. That makes having a newborn, the stomach flu, a full calendar, or the stress of my normal life seem so petty. My "survival mode" is actually someone's dream; to be warm, feed, safe, loved, and comforted. So I apologize for once again getting so wrapped up in the "stress" of my princess life to forget that its not that bad in fact it is that good. I'm so thankful for opportunities like the Road Home project to bring my perspective back down to earth.