Get Real Monday

Okay, today I'm playing along with Randi at I Have To Say, who had this to say on Friday:

This month I am wondering what you do to relax and re-energize. I think most of you are busy moms and sometimes you need to take a break and do something for yourself. Do you read a book? Wash the car? Make a craft? Do some gardening? Go hide out in the bathroom? (OK, that last one was a joke!) What makes you feel ready to meet the challenges of life? And please, if you can, on Monday post a picture of yourself doing it!

So here's me at Panera Bread Company--my favorite place to go for some "me time." Now that I'm blogging, the free Wi-Fi makes it an even more desirable place to go, but I've loved their hazelnut coffee and chocolate-something bagels (right now it's Mocha-Chip Swirl) for years.

After our third child was born, life seemed to get a lot harder. My husband (out of desperation, probably!), strongly suggested that I leave the house for a couple afternoons a week--he worked at home at the time--to spend some concentrated quiet time with the Lord. I remember thinking at first that I didn't need time away from my house, I needed quiet time IN it, preferably WITHOUT him and the children in it, if he could figure out how to manage that. I wanted to Get Things Done! But since he was practically pushing me out the door, I went, at first to the Acorn Coffee Bar and Folk Lore Center, where they gave folk instrument lessons. (At that time, it was the closest quiet place besides the library--where they still won't sell ya a hot drink.) I remember praying in my car each time before I went in, that it would be a sanctuary, a place where God would meet me in a special way--and did He ever!

At first, it was hard for me to stop feeling anxious that I wasn't accomplishing something. An hour seemed a long time to fill with just Scripture reading and prayer. Then I began reading Restoring the Christian Soul by Leanne Payne, since I knew Leanne--she attended our church at that time and I had been so blessed at one of her conferences. The first few chapters of that book provided so much journalling material that suddenly the hour just seemed way too short. As I wrote out my heart to God, He met me in such powerful ways that those hours alone with Him soon became the meat of my spiritual diet. (As a homeschooling mom, it seems like I don't get a chance to "eat" much on normal days with my children. Maybe if I were an early riser and a morning person...but alas, I am not.)

Later, when my oldest two were in a morning of classes, I worked out babysitting for the youngest so I could go alone for those 2.5 hours to a nearby Panera, and I kept working it out for years--through various class and babysitting arrangements (it helped that Grandma and Grandpa moved here after our fourth child was born)--so that I had my morning out once a week. If I had a newborn, he or she came with me. There are employees and "regulars" at one Panera who've seen me through three pregnancies and infancies!

The current version of our schedule is that I go on Friday nights and Saturday mornings while Blondechick 13 and Bantam 10.95 are at play practices. After being gone at work all week, Papa Rooster is happy to stay home with our younger kids, and after a week of kids, I'm in desperate need of time ALONE--so it works out well for us.

It has become such an important time for me to regroup spiritually and emotionally--and it's just not the same when I attempt it at home. ("Don't try this at home!") The phone rings, kids need me, I'm distracted by Things That Need To Be Done--there isn't a room in my house that isn't filled with those--and it's hard to hear that still, small voice. Somehow, it's much louder at Panera! I read, I journal, I pray, I process decisions, I think uninterrupted thoughts. It's become my venue of choice for writing projects as well.

Some of you have run into me there...and now you all can imagine me there--as I am right now!