Atrophy of the Brain

The day-to-day work of maintaining a home and taking care of all your littles can be so physically exhausting.  Or course we LOVE being a mommy and cherish those cute cubby cheeks and absolutely adore playing with our children.  But, we also know how taxing this work can be.  And, sometimes you feel so distanced from other adults and the outside world.  I really don’t want my brain to waste away :)  Sure our husbands love to hear about all the cute things the kids did that day … but I think they also appreciate having someone to chat with about the current issues of the day or having a companion with whom they can really learn and grow. 

We all need intellectual stimulation and adult connections.  We just have to creatively carve out time to make that happen. Here are some things I’ve tried:

• download some books on mp3 or great talks on your ipod and listen while attacking the mounds of dishes
• always carry a good book with you wherever you go.  You’ll be surprised and how many pages you can read here and there.
• once I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal newspaper so I had something tangible to peak out throughout the week.  I love how this newspaper has an easy read column to quickly catch you up on world and us events. 
• once I printed out colored maps of the united states, the world, favorite quotes, scriptures and laminated them to post on our shower wall.  You might as well have something fun to learn about while you wash your hair! 
• get a healthy dose of curiosity!  My husband is so good at researching things he is randomly interested in.  Like just the other night we were talking about the upcoming presidential election and we hoped online together and looked up some things in mid-conversation!  Steve wanted to find out exactly how the Senate and House worked.  I love how curious that boy is.
• Find things you are interested in and learn about them!  I enjoy going to the library and picking up children's books about various subjects.  Brayden enjoys them and I also can flip through and learn cool things too – like books about the ocean, dinosaurs, automobiles, animals, whatever!
• I love getting together with other mommies to do stuff with our kids.  Our little ones love to play with friends and go fun places, and it gives the moms time to connect about what they are going through.  Networking with other moms is so vital to our survival! 
• For a while I had one goal to learn one new thing every day.  With the craziness of tending little kids, this seemed realistic to me and motivated me to research one thing I was curious about.  My sister-in-law Tiffany has two goals a day: 1. learn one new thing  2. reach out and serve one person

Let me know if you’ve found any ways to combat atrophy of your brain, and I can add them to the list!