Swollen.

As I was thinking about writing this post tonight, after a whirlwind of a day, I read these two posts from two of my favorite bloggers. (I do not know them personally, just somehow found their blogs and enjoy reading them.) Tonight, they were medicine to my weary soul, as they were both talking about the hardships (along with joys) of motherhood, and both are also pregnant while taking care of kids!

Sowing Weeds and Starting Again

Splashpad Mother

Taking care of kids is incredibly hard. Rewarding, but hard. I take care of multiple kids (the number kind of fluctuates, but right now it's 13). Most of the time, actually almost all of the time, I truly love my job and am so grateful for it. Even on the off days, I don't get too discouraged and it's usually not too hard to find the positives.

But, occasionally, there are those few truly awful days where you just want to escape and find something new. I have had two of those in the last week, and having two really bad teaching days so close together is not fun. Thankfully, they are usually spaced apart quite nicely.

Some of the children in my class this summer can be challenging. Today, I felt really swollen. Unfortunately, I have noticed physical swelling in my feet/lower legs this week due to this growing baby. I know I will get so much bigger, but today I am just feeling big and swollen.

My heart feels swollen in this mix of emotions. I feel swollen with joy, excitement, and anxiousness to meet this little one. I feel swollen with weariness/discouragement after a tough day at school and worried about possible/probable tough days ahead.

God, I pray that you can turn this swollen heart into fullness for you! I pray for energy, strength, patience, love, and encouragement to teach and teach well.