The Young and the Restless

Overwhelmed

My friend said it best when saying that "being a Mormon is stressful!". Yes, we know we get blessings for being obedient and there's a reason that we do what we do, but let's face it, it can be stressful trying to keep up with everything! Recently our stake has requested that every family has atleast a 2 week supply of water. There has been a lot of speculation as to why, especially since the last time a stake in our area made a request like this Hurricane Katrina happened shortly afterwards and they were able to use all the water to ship to those in need. I'm not making any speculations, but it does make me re-evaluate how prepared we are. I was so excited that Jason finished the shelves under our stairs so that I can finally have a place to keep my food storage (what I would give for the basement I had in Utah!). My food storage isn't much, but atleast it's a start (I've been going with the "buy things that you use" route, and so far it looks like at the end of the world we'll be eating cold cereal, flour and soy sauce). I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm getting my water and food supply built up, but what about all the toiletries, emergency stuff, medications, etc.? It's stressful! Not to mention all the other worries that us mom's, particularly mormon moms, have to deal with:

Am I doing a good enough job teaching my kids about the gospel? How do I keep them more reverent at church? Is my scripture study effective? Am I attending the temple enough? Are my kids eating healthy enough? Are my kids getting enough exercise? Are my kids watching too much tv? Did they get their homework done? Am I spending enough time playing with them? How do I keep the house clean and organized without neglecting my kids? Did they brush their teeth? Did I remember to pack lunches? Am I finding time to teach Jayden his letters and numbers? Should I be volunteering more at school? What can I do about these scorpions, we just found another one outside the kids bedrooms? I should be doing more to develop my talents, but what and when? I keep hearing scary stories about immunizations, am I making the right choice to immunize this next baby? Am I giving them enough chores to teach them responsibility? Should I start allowances so I can teach them how to manage money? How can I plan more effective FHE's? Am I patient but not lenient? Am I firm but not mean? Am I sympathetic without coddling? Am I teaching them good manners? Am I staying on top of my journaling/scrapbooking? Should we be starting their college fund now? Am I doing all that I can for my calling? Do they have clean clothes to wear? Am I shelterig them too much or not enough? Am I making the most of my time? Am I staying within the budget? Is there a healthy home cooked meal, that my kids will actually eat, on the table every night? What can I do to strengthen my marriage? What traditions am I passing on to my kids? Did I do my visiting teaching? Am I spoiling my kids? Am I serving as much as I should? And the list goes on....It's amazing that us moms even get any sleep at night! I guess all that I can do is try my best and hope it's enough.