Making yourself a priority....

Here's a recap of our weekend - on Thursday night, our daughter Ailini played in a Christmas recital. The teacher had handed out a flyer about the recital and we didn't find out until the day before. I always get nervous watching my kids perform. I think part of it is because they are so hard on themselves when they mess up. Well, she did fine. Played without any problems.

Friday night was our ward Christmas party and dance. Haloti had to work, so it was just me and the kids. The setting was beautiful and we actually hung around for the dance. As my two older boys get older, they think they are too cool to be dancing with mom. If Haloti wasn't working, I wouldn't be dragging them with me. I know they would prefer to stay home. But since their dad was working, they had to come.

Saturday morning began with the usual 9:00 Zumba class. We had a sub and it was so hard to get into the routine. But I stuck it out and managed to sweat a few calories off. By the time class finished, we came out to tons of snow. We spent most of the morning looking for basketball shoes for Nohe'a. Found a good deal and ended up getting him 2 pairs. Later that afternoon, I dropped Soni and Nohe'a off and then headed over to Seini Pahulu's house for our Cents-able Shoppers service project. Our group selected 3 needy families. We gathered together gifts and household items to donate. We'll be making donations on the 20th.

Over the same weekend, while I was out shopping, I noticed an article on "People" magazine. The article featured Oprah Winfrey hitting 200 lbs. For those that know, weight is something she has always struggled with. Anyhow, back in 2004, she weighed 160 lbs. Over the past 4 years, she tacked on 40 lbs. The article quoted her as saying "she was embarrassed". Embarrassed that she let the 40 lbs creep up on her. It also mentioned how during those past 4 years, she focused on other things and not really herself. Basically she made other things a priority over herself. That kind of hit home for me. How often do we as mothers put our spouse, our kids, our jobs and other people before ourselves. I'm not saying we should think of just ourselves, but we should give ourselves some kind of priority. Find the right balance and don't forget yourself as you take care of others.