This weekend has left me feeling very tired and a bit overwhelmed. My wife and I opened our house to a couple guests. I really love to host. I love having people over to talk and share with each other, eating meals together, and if they need it providing a place to sleep. There is just something about that time that brings people closer together, it is a gift from God. However, this weekend the particular people we were housing were a little different.

You see, my mother in law spent the weekend with us (and her mother but she was very quiet most of the time). I really enjoy having her around, but honestly sometimes it is just a bit much. Her and my wife are both very strong independent women and when they get together they often butt heads. My mother in law has her ideas on mothering and that leaves my wife feeling like she is not doing the right things even though she really knows she is, just stuff like that. She is very strongly opinionated and if something is said that she doesn't agree with she will let you know. That can actually be a wonderful thing, to stand strong for what you believe, but sometimes it is a bit draining.

So after 3 days of hosting, I went to work this morning feeling very tired and a bit overwhelmed. I felt as though my head was spinning round and round and I could not get a firm grasp on anything to stop the spinning. Lucky for me I get to spend an hour and a half Monday through Wednesday in the baby room at work during nap time. This often provides a wonderful time for me to sit back and just think (or fall asleep but I try not to do that).

Today I decided to write down every thought that came to mind. I just wanted to get the thoughts out, jot them down. Even if they were not in an organized pattern on paper at least they could be out of my head for a while and I would get some time to relax. Here is a sample of what I wrote:

"footsteps, cards, send out graduation party invites, cards to youth, they need valuable adult relationships, reach out and pray for Time, missionaries make a lot of sacrifices, hard living with no friends, feel so alone, texting does not help, Call every other night of the week? Once every other week? glasses clear vision, blind but now I see, blind man and Jesus, Easter is named after a goddess, Jesus is alive..."

Some of the thoughts made sense together and some had vast jumps between, but you know what? It really worked at clearing my head. I spent 30 minutes jotting down my thoughts like this.

If you are having trouble thinking or can't seem to wade through the waves of your thoughts I would highly suggest doing this. It may seem weird at first but after a few words things just begin to fall onto the paper. Even when you slow down a time or two do not stop, there may be more and it may be very important that you jot these thoughts down. You will be able to relax your mind for a while and maybe get a grasp on what is important again.