Today's prayer request

Every morning Jim asks each member of our family what our prayer request is.  Today mine was: "wisdom to know what tasks to do." 

The tasks are overwhelming. The laundry is piled up on the couch. The bills to pay are piled up on the dining room table. The dirty dishes are piled up in the sink.  We need to eat down the freezer before our pork is ready at the locker, so I need to inventory our small chest freezer & arrange my menu plan accordingly.

The old slogan, "Just do it," comes to mind.  And yet my body is physically weary.  Daylight savings time still has me feeling like jet lag + pulling all-nighters.  My muscles (particularly upper leg) are weak and still regaining strength from being off my meds when I was on antibiotics.  (Read: I'm spending a lot of time with my legs elevated.)  And the disease has flared, causing pain in my feet, at times making each step painful.  

I decided to start easy, sort of like paying off your smallest debts first so you can gain momentum.  I RSVPed to a child's classmate's birthday party.  I scheduled my eye appointment.  And I tried to schedule a (new - sigh) specialist appointment for one of the children.  The receptionist first told me I would need to check with our insurance (okay), but then had a few other reasons for why I couldn't make an appointment, ending with, "You'll have to go to the University of Iowa or the University of Illinois." That is more than I can do today (especially since the provider who is recommending the appointment told me to make the appointment on my own).  This is going to be a multi-step process for sure!

And then my mind is still swirling from student-led parent teacher conferences yesterday. (No, that is not a typo. Yes, it was as much of a joke as you might think.)  My mind is also still swirling from new things I learned yesterday about the state of education. (At the 5th grade conference, I asked questions to clarify how they report books they have read. In doing so, I referred to a different way it had been done in the past, and the teacher thought I was complaining that they don't use that method. I quickly assured her I wasn't complaining about how they do it now; I wanted to understand how the current system works.  Unfortunately, I added, "There are plenty of things I want to complain about, but not to the people in this room.  I want to complain about the current state of education.")

The state of our nation is also disturbing.  I recently learned about the 5 Calls app and website, and actually dialed the first number on my list, but quickly decided I do not have margin right now to be calling all our representatives.  I will have to trust the Lord to use my prayers & not my activism at this point. 

On top of that, or maybe underlying all the items listed above, one of our children is struggling a LOT these days (these past 2+ weeks), and we are ALL exhausted.  

And, so, as my feet are able, I will put one foot in front of the other and tackle the dishes and changing our bedding and sorting laundry and paying bills and making a Walmart order, knowing that my husband is praying for me to have wisdom in which tasks to do, and that the Lord will give grace & strength as needed.