Bogged down by busyness

I realize I am not the only one who suffers from the busyness of life; my dear friend even named her blog "Busy, Busy, Busy", so why do I act surprised when I have been going 90 to nothing trying to get everything "done" so that I can do something fun but just as I think I am finished something else pops up on my to do list.
The truth of the matter is we are never "done", there is always going to be something that needs tending to, whether it be cleaning the toilet or helping a child with a school project or helping a friend.
Even the tasks that we can't stop doing (daily family care and feeding) threaten to become ominous.
All of these things are nothing but distractions, they are ammo in the enemies arsenal of tricks. He has come to steal our time from the things that are more important, the things that will matter 10 years from now.
Do I want my children to look back on their childhood and think. "Wow, Mom had the shiniest toilet on the whole block!" Or do I want them to remember that I was there along side them making cookies or just being there, available.
What memories are we making?
In Luke 10:38-42, is the story of Mary and Martha. Martha gets so frustrated that she is frantically preparing a meal and making sure the house looks nice for Jesus, while her sister just sits at the feet of Jesus.
Martha gets so upset that she says to Jesus, "Tell Mary to help me!" (Now I don't know about you, but I don't think I could be so bold as to order the Lord to do something, but wait isn't that how most of our prayers end up coming out? Oh, that's another blog entirely, I guess).
So then Jesus tells Martha that "she is worried about many things, but only one thing is needed, her sister has chosen has chosen the good part and it will not be taken away from her."

Now more than ever, being that we are in the season to celebrate the birth of or Lord, we should stop and take the time to enjoy the reasn for the season; we should be making lasting memories, not worrying about a silly gift that will probably break in the next month or one day be easily forgotten and replaced by whatever is the new and exciting fad of the time.

We/I shouldn't become stressed because time ran out and the MP3 players won't be pre-loaded with music before they are given, or that a package got wrapped, but didn't get a pretty bow(all though who doesn't love opening a pretty package).

When we let the stress get to us, we let satan have the upper hand, he has succeed in stealing from us.

When we take the time to sit at Jesus feet and worship Him, to soak up all that He is into our hearts; when we do this first all the other menial tasks fall into place.
I pray continually that the Lord will help me find and maintain a balance between keeping the things that must be done, taken care of and stopping to actually live life and not neglect those things/people that really matter, that will matter 10 years from now!