take one for the team ~ a nap

I posted this on Instagram yesterday. I keep coming back to this photo. I convinced the girls to sneak up to the boys’ loft to do their reading. My oldest daughter read to me. I have never been a napper. Goodness though – when I lay down and she starts reading, my eyes close and I begin fighting to stay awake. I know – I’m not winning any Reading Teacher of the Year points. On this particular day, she finished reading and headed back downstairs. I pulled my youngest close to me and tried to convince her to take a nap with me. She just laughed at me.

My to-do list was crazy long. We still needed to finish up school. The house looked like a small explosion had taken place. I was way behind on email. I had SnapShops to update. And the list goes on. And on. And on. If she had said, “okay Mommy,” I would have taken a nap.

I laid there and thought about the days when I only had two kids. A toddler and a newborn. And they napped AT THE SAME TIME. I remember older women telling me, “be sure you nap when the baby naps.” I listened to that advice only a handful of the times. The rest of the time I hustled. I remember feeling like I had so much ‘to do’, it seemed impossible to be able to take a nap in the middle of the day. That was crazy talk.

And now…here I am with 5, homeschooling and running a business. My ‘to-do’ list is so much bigger. My kids don’t nap. I’m in a different phase. Looking back, I wished I napped more. Goodness – the piles are still there, the things I need to get done has only grown – I should have slept when the baby slept. I could totally handle a nap today.

So, as I encourage those of you with nappers to give yourself a break and for heaven’s sake enjoy a nap, I wonder what do those of you with teenagers and kids out of the house encourage me to do? Just as I see the baby years from a different perspective, I know so many of you are down the path and see this season of my life from such a different perspective. What would you tell your ‘mom of elementary/middle school age kids’ self?

If you have a baby – please, please for my sake take a nap today and breathe in that sweet baby smell. Eventually, especially if that baby is a boy, that sweet smell won’t be so sweet!