“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.” - Thomas Merton

For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about how to keep balance in my life as it is something that I have been struggling with. As a mother I have so many responsibilities that I have to do. I have to keep the house clean, make sure my family is fed, do the washing, buy the groceries and make sure we are sticking to our budget. I also need to find some way to entertain the girls through out the day without having them sitting in front of the TV all the time, make sure they are eating healthily, break up screaming matches and comfort a crying daughter who has hurt herself or had something snatched away from her. I also need to be a good wife and make sure my husband is happy and healthy as well finding time when we can spend quality one on one time together. And then on top of all of the things I'm supposed to be doing, I also have to find time for my own spiritual, physical and emotional needs.

This list seems long and endless, and while it is, it probably seems worse than it is when I write it down. But it serves to illustrate my point and that is, that from day to day I have so many things to do, how do I keep the balance between keeping on top of everything and making sure I do those things which are most important. These are some of the things that I have been thinking about over the last few weeks.

1. Isabelle made me very aware of something the other day. She was playing with her blocks and she asked me to come and sit down and play with her. At the time I was doing something so I said something to the effect of "Mummy can't right now sweetheart". And Izzy said to herself (or at least it's what I heard) "Mummy's too busy to play blocks". My heart almost broke into a million pieces. It broke my heart to think of my daughter believing I was too busy to spend time with her. So I immediately sat down with her to build a car and resolved in that very instant that I would never ever be too busy to sit with my children and spend time with them. Never too busy to go outside with my husband and children on his day off. Never too busy to sit and spend quality time with my husband and strengthen our marriage.

My Babies

2. One thing that always seems to get pushed back is my spiritual well being. Too often I should read my scriptures or say my morning or evening prayers and I think, I'll do it later but then later never comes and it's the end of the day and I'm falling in to bed after not doing any of it. I have realised lately, that this isn't what should come later, it's everything else. So I have decided on another resolve that scripture study, prayers and other spiritual matters, come before things which aren't eternally significant.

3. For me, the one thing that has ALWAYS gone to the bottom of my priorities, when it should be near the top is my physical well being. We all know the things we hear everyday, eat right and exercise, but it's kind of just another thing that I have to do. It's easy to say eat right, but as well as healthy food being far more expensive (even more so up here), healthy food often takes more time to prepare and isn't as popular at dinner time. And exercise is the same. I have no time between getting up at 7 and going to bed after 11 to stop and exercise. (I mean, I'm moving all day as it is - I wish it would show on my waste line). So I have resolved (again) that I will take more care of my self so that I can be healthy and active and have the energy to play with and chase after my 2 very active babies!

4. The last thing is that I have decided that sometimes there are some things that just aren't important, and just have to go from your daily life. Watching TV - not important, surfing the internet - not important, having an absolutely spotless house - not important. So I am cutting out those things which don't matter.

So how will I try now to keep the balance? I am cutting out what doesn't matter, realising what can wait and focusing more on what is most important: My family, my health and my eternal wellbeing. That's all. Everything else is secondary and can wait.