Weekend in Review

It’s a little past my bedtime, but I am stalling and reading Face.book posts I’ve already read because I just don’t want this weekend to end.  I had been dreading it for a long time.  Mom went to the beach with her “gal pals” and Skip left Thursday for an out of town wedding.  I had to hire a sitter for all day Friday and again for Friday night because months ago (before the wedding and the beach trip were booked) I scheduled the annual Relay for Life Silent Auction for Friday night. This meant that Layla stayed with a sitter for approximately 13 hours on Friday.  That’s more hours in one day than she’s spent with a sitter (besides mom) combined in her entire life.  (I think. I suck in math, so I could be wrong).  Anyway, the weekend ended up being pretty great.

Layla, of course, was great for the sitter.  I completely trust Allison and knew they’d have a good time.  The worry-about-it-anyway mama in me just had to lose a little sleep over being away from her for so much of the day.  The silent auction went great.  I think I did less work than I’ve ever done hauling stuff out and setting up.  That’s thanks to a great group of girls who believe in the cause and in hard work.  I enjoyed being at a basketball game on Friday night hanging out with my best friend, Megan.

Saturday, Layla and I met Kimberly and Quinn for lunch and a long walk.  Layla even took a nap in her stroller, which almost never happens.  Skip got in that afternoon and happily hopped back in the car to take his girls to Chickfila for dinner.  Half way there, he confessed he’d had Chickfila for lunch, but I had a calendar card to use and no more days to use it, so we went anyway. We ended the night with Blacklist- our new favorite show.

Today, I decided I would attend Sunday morning growth group and the worship service.  Ever since Layla started staying in the nursery and got on a nap schedule, I’ve been leaving after growth group to bring her home for a nap.  After Kimberly told me during our walk that Quinn stays for Sunday School and preaching, I decided it was high time Layla did the same.  But, since I am a (reluctant) nursery worker myself who hates to be in there with whiny/fussy/screaming/anytypeofkidsreally, I made it clear that I wanted them to text me if she got really fussy.  She made it to 11:25AM, and I was so relieved to get there and find her just fussy and not inconsolably crying.  They’d listened to my wishes, something I really appreciate and don’t take for granted.

After I got Layla home and fed, she went down for a nap and slept an hour and forty minutes!  THAT NEVER HAPPENS.  I even slept 20 of those minutes!  When she woke up, Skip and I took her for a little walk to the park.  Mom was dying to see her when she got back from her trip, so after the park we headed her way.  We dropped Layla off and went on a little date to Target.  We had Starbucks (me) and Jamba Juice (Skip) and took a little drive through a neighborhood I really adore on our way back to get our girl.  We finished the night with frozen pizza and bedtime guitar playing, and it was just really relaxing and wonderful. 

Lately, most moments with Layla are wonderful.  She’s so stinking cute and she’s learning so many new things every day that we just sit around in awe of her and the fact that she’s ours.  She’s started using several signs to communicate and it’s so fun and funny to watch these motions we’ve done with her for months really click.  She loves to take her bib off and sign “finished” after her meal.  She’s recently found her nose and will point to it on command.  She can almost blow a kiss, but she’s perfected the art of giving them right on the mouth.  She’s even learned she can trade things like, “if you give me a kiss, I’ll give you a marshmallow.”  She’s still just taking a few steps here and there when she darn well pleases.  She CAN take five or six in a row, but she rarely does.  Lazy little booger!

Our Life Group lesson this morning was “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” One thing Mrs. Shirley said that really stuck out to me is that a lot of times, we don’t wait for the devil to steal our joy, we just hand it right over.  I think I am guilty of this a lot.  I am a worrier.  I’ve gotten better since marrying Skip who worries about very little, but it’s still a big struggle of mine.  I’d worried myself silly over this weekend. Would the auction go well…would Layla do well with a sitter for that long…would mama have fun… would I handle being a single parent all weekend ok... and other trivialities.  I’d convinced myself the whole weekend was gonna suck before it even got started.  Now, I’m sitting here rambling out a blog post because I don’t want to see it end.  This is that abundant life Marty was talking about before I got summoned to get Layla.  This is the joy that really is strengthening and sustaining, and it’s just what I need to get through a new week.