theraputic

as a mom with 4 kids adopted from hard places i have set through thousands of hours of doctors and therapy appointments. some days i think i should have a doctorate already in counseling. other days i feel like i need my own therapy for all the therapy i attend and all that i talk about over and over and over and over and over again...get the picture. lately with everything that has been going on with our family i have been asked about 50 times what i do to relieve stress. honestly, i don't really have a good answer. i can answer all the text book answers: deep breathing, go to my happy place, count to 10, a "time out". but let's get real, in the moment none of those things work. lately coffee has been my biggest stress reliever. that and sitting by the warm fire. i didn't start drinking coffee till i became a mom. ha!

over the past several months one of my favorite things to do has become working out, more specifically lifting weights. there is just something very liberating about working your way up to lifting half your body weight, or being able to do 1000 reps in under 30 min. i try to go to the gym at least 3x a week but with everything going on lately it's been more like 1x a week. i so very miss it. never thought i would be that person that "misses" the gym. for me, the gym is my therapist. with every lift of that ridiculous bar that i know will only bring me pain tomorrow feels so great. i feel like i'm currently in the best shape of my life. it's the one thing i feel like i get to do for me that no one can interfere with. i love that my gym has free childcare and k loves to go with me in the mornings. the past week i've been working too hard and oh how a massage sounds so great right about now. i think that could be therapeutic too. 

here are a few other stress relievers i have come to use:

a good haircut

christmas music

watching FRIENDS

crafting (i craft at inappropriate times when my house is chaotic)

washing dishes

playing the piano

coffee date with girlfriends

a good movie date with my incredible hubby