good life with laurie pecotte
Part of cultivating a good life is taking time for yourself.
We have four kids ranging in age from 10 years old all the way down to 1. Never has the phrase “the days are long, but the years are short” rang so true to me. We are in the thick of the feeding and nurturing years of our kids. It’s exhausting, wonderful, trying, exhausting, fun, and exhausting. Did I mention it was exhausting? This doesn’t even take into account the other things I have going on in my life. As much as my kids like to think they are the center of the universe, I actually have other responsibilities besides them. *wink*
Now, dear friend, don’t think that I am spending my whole time complaining about my life. I am grateful for my family and I am grateful for the privilege I have of having the title of mom to four littles. Sometimes it is just good for others to acknowledge that it is hard and that sometimes (maybe a lot of times) they struggle too. If you are feeling the strain of life, solidarity sister. I feel you.
One thing I have learned over the years is that if I allow everything to overrun me, it will. I will work myself ragged in order to fulfill all of my responsibilities as a wife, mother, employee, church volunteer. All of these are great things, but they are also incredibly demanding. The more I give without replenishing my own bucket, the worse I become as a human being. True story. I run short on patience (or lack it entirely). I find myself daydreaming of my bed and longing for the time when we can get back together to get some zzz’s instead of enjoying my day and the opportunities it presents. Eventually I get to the place where I just can’t do any of it anymore. When I don’t take time to care for myself, I can’t care for others.
If it were up to me, I would have a massage every day and a chef to cook for us every day. (Seriously, why do they want to eat every day?) But since that isn’t realistic, I have had to find other ways to take a little time for myself. I love to read. Reading has been a passion of mine since I was a kid. Every night I read before bed. Sometimes I am only able to read for five minutes before I am too tired to go on, but it feels nice to have that little bit of time just for me. Other things I like to do to recharge are take long baths, escape for a date night with my husband, have a girls night with my sister, sneaking a bite of chocolate, or even just a trip to Target - by myself.
Just a little bit of time to myself reminds me who I am. I am not the zombie walking around trying to keep all the pieces together. I am a person with interests and hobbies. I am someone who can teach, serve, and love. I am someone who can, in fact, exercise patience. It’s possible. Sometimes we just need to give ourselves a little break.
a note from becky
Laurie Pecotte is our digital manager here at BH. If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram you know that I love to share behind the scenes glimpses of our team and Laurie may feel like she's missing from many of those pictures ... because darn it, she lives in New Mexico with her cute family! Not quite close enough to commute to our office in Peoria, Arizona.
Nevertheless, Laurie is an invaluable part of our team and literally runs the entire digital part of our business -- Digital Project Life®. So if you love using Project Life on your computer, you can thank Laurie for that. If you want to learn what that's all about and how it works, you can thank Laurie for that too because she's the one that has made all of those digital video tutorials hanging out on YouTube. Oh, and no big deal ... but she's a very instrumental part of the Project Life App, too!
Besides all of this, and if I can gush just a little more ... Laurie is an outstanding human being. We love you, Laurie! Thank you for sharing your insights on the very real struggle that so many of us feel.