Skip to main content

Did I Forget To Take Care Of Someone?

When I was pregnant with our twins over five years ago, I broke a tooth.  At the time, I didn't go to the dentist because I had gone into pre-term labor at about 22 weeks.  I didn't want to do anything that would put more of a risk on my pregnancy.  I just figured I would take care of it after they were born.

The twins were born a little over 4 weeks premature. They were healthy, but they were little five pound babies. They needed to be fed every two hours for the first few weeks.

Along with caring for the twins, I also had a 1 year old and a 3 year old at home. Taking care of my tooth was the last thing on my mind.

Six months after the twins were born we packed up and moved to a different State. It was a pretty smooth move, but my husband's new job required him to work a lot of hours. Once again, I didn't get my tooth taken care of. I made sure I cleaned it well.  It didn't hurt. So I just didn't bother getting it fixed.

A little over two years after our move, my husband lost his job.  We lost our insurance.  I went back to work.

After nine month of being unemployed, my husband was blessed with another job.  I stayed working for a few months more and then I came home to be with our children.  In that time, my tooth broke off more.

I still ignored it.  I kept it clean.  It didn't hurt.  So I didn't go see anyone about it.

A couple days ago I took my kids to the dentist to get their teeth cleaned.  While I was there, I asked the dentist about my tooth.  It had been hurting lately, so I thought it best that I had it looked at.

The dentist office wasn't busy so they took a quick x-ray.  My tooth is abscessed.  The dentist told me that my tooth couldn't be saved.  He will have to extract my tooth.

I had to fight back tears.

I felt so shallow, vain, thinking only of my appearance.  It is just a tooth.  This is not who I am.

I know this may sound silly, but I have already been struggling with my weight over the past couple years, now I am loosing a tooth.  I felt ugly.  I thought of my husband and how I was not pleasing to his eyes.  It still makes me cry.

The whole point of this post is to remind moms to take care of themselves.  Life gets busy.  Taking care of small children, a home, a husband, it all takes up all our time.

If I had just found an hour or two to take care of myself all those years ago, my tooth wouldn't be infected and it wouldn't be getting pulled.

We, as mothers, seem to take care of everyone but ourselves.  But if we don't start taking care of ourselves we could loose a lot more than a tooth.

I pray for all of you moms out there who are caring for your husband, children and home.  I pray that you take time to care for yourself.  I pray that you don't feel guilty for taking that time to care for yourself.  I pray that you remember caring for yourself is part of caring for everyone else.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Romania... are you sure?

A few weeks back I received a call from one of our church members telling me that God put my name on his heart during his prayer time that morning and he wanted me to pray about going to Romania. WHAT??? I can't go to Romania, I have 4 children, I can't leave them for a week! I, of course, did not say this to him, I instead said that I would pray about it. Immediately I sent my husband an email telling him about the phone call. He instantly sent me a message back asking what we had to do to make it happen. Wait a minute....he does realize the kids aren't going with me, doesn't he? That evening we were sitting with our children looking at the globe. We showed them where they were born and where they live now. Suddenly, my youngest daughter spins the globe, points her little finger and says "where is that". Of all places, she pointed to Romania. I have often told friends that I need a postcard of clarity from God. I think that was definitely a postcard in the fo...

Trying to be more of a planner

In December I started making a monthly meal plan.  I was excited, but a little nervous about how it would all turn out.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.  It didn't take as much time as I thought it would. I made the meal calendar for the month and then wrote down all the ingredients I would need.  That part was a little overwhelming at first.  I separated the lists into perishables and non-perishables/freezable.   Now I do a once a month shopping trip for the non-perishables/freezables and then a bi-weekly shopping trip for perishables.  I don't stick to the menu every day, but I know that I will have enough meals for a whole month.  When making out the menu I tried to put similar meals back to back.  Like one night we will have meatloaf and the next night we have shepherd pie.  I use the same ingredients 2 days in a row.  It saves time and money. My once a month shopping trip consists of bulk buying...

A Mom Is A Mom

I've been struggling with something for a while now. My struggle has caused me to hide out in my house and not want to go out into the world. What is my struggle? Women treating other women in a negative matter. Women talking about other women in a negative matter. More to the point - I struggle with the way moms treat other moms. We moved down south from Michigan about 5 years ago. I was excited for the change. My excitement was quickly squashed with the negativity I received. Unfortunately, there are still some people down south who do not care for people from the north. This has been a struggle the entire time I have lived down here. I simply do not fit in. My feeling is that I don't care where you are from. If you are a woman, we have something in common and we should support each other and lift each other up. If you are a mom, we have even more in common and we should support each other and lift each other up. It doesn't matter if you are a working mom or a s...