Parties and more parties.

I gave myself a blog time out until I got some thank you notes written. I put it off because my handwriting is atrocious, like a teenage boy's, and I inevitably write something weird but it's in ink so I either start over or have to scribble words out. But they are done. The thank you's are for a very belated birthday celebration my playgroup had. There was one planned around my birthday but I didn't really feel up to doing dinner out until just recently. We went to Maggiano's and planned to see The Help but unanimously decided there was no way we could stay out that late. So we all got in our mini vans and were home by 9. Not joking. And because I didn't take a picture of my particular night out, I'm claiming one from the week before at a baby shower for another playgrouper. It was more or less the same crew.

Three of these people are pregnant and two very recently had babies. We look like a well rested crew, considering. FYI, this was at Pasha and it was delicious. It's Mediterranean food and we had an expert in our group to help us order. And, equally as important, teach me how to pronounce what I wanted. Always fun to be with you ladies!!! I'm so thankful for your friendships!!

We had a good Labor Day weekend. My parents came down and we celebrated Walker's birthday.

This present was and still is his favorite. It's a little cd player with plastic cd's, so they're durable. He concentrates intently on taking them in and out, then dances around when the music plays.

 His cake. It wasn't that good.....but he was excited about Diego sitting on top, which was really the point in the first place. And he ate his piece with enthusiasm so I guess it was a success.

So Harris wouldn't be left out of present getting, my parents gave him some puzzles. He has worked them every single day since then and I think he's working them instead of napping right now. We didn't do too much else that weekend. We did take a trip to the donut shop while Tom was out biking 42 miles. I felt a smidge gross about that but not enough to stop from eating a donut. Or maybe two. My parents did some babysitting while we went to dinner, which was AWESOME.  Walker has finally decided to let them in his "Circle of Trust" so that was a nice change. He must have remembered them since they were just down a few weeks ago, because he was buddies with them pretty quickly. Anyway, Saturday night we ended up bring able to watch the OU game at dinner!! We don't have cable but were able to stream every game last year. For some reason, we couldn't get this one and felt terrible that my parents weren't able to see it. It was even worse when we came home and my poor mom was standing up, watching the play by play on the laptop. It was the kind where the fake football moves and it's about 5 min behind the action. Since she was also listening to the radio broadcast, it was not the greatest. Thank you Mom, for taking one for the team and letting us go to dinner!!! BOOMER SOONER!

Another thing that happened this weekend was that I completely flaked out on something. This has happened once before and I've also gotten my info wrong about something else. All of these things have happened in the past few months and I can't even blame it on pregnancy brain. I have no idea why I'm so scattered lately. It's really not at all like me to be this way. I think the worst part is that every time I had NO CLUE. This time, I showed up to a party after it was over. I thought it was a little odd that there were no cars in the parking lots, lights weren't really on inside, etc, but it never crossed my mind that I could have had the time wrong! I still had total confidence that I knew what was going on. I just got a new planner that I can take everywhere with me and I'm hoping writing things down the INSTANT the plan is made will help this. I was good about using Outlook and setting reminders for things when I was working and don't have a good replacement system, clearly. My new method is to email myself if for some reason I don't have my planner, then transfer the info to there. We'll see how that works. Feel free to offer suggestions. I felt very on top of things when I was working, maybe beacuse every single second of my day was allocated for a specific purpose. I do not have the same level of "on top of it-ness" in my stay at home career.

Anyway, so I obviously need a better system. But what this made me think of was this scripture in Matthew.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I felt a little silly when I confidently walked into a party place, only to be told I was two hours late. But that's a fixable error. Can you imagine hearing the words above on Judgement Day? When it's too late? While I absolutely think the enemy uses this scripture in particular to make people doubt themselves, but it is still scripture. It says what it says because that's what some people will hear. I know theologians debate this and I have no desire to get into to any of that. It just made me think and reminded me, yet again, that this earth is not my home and I shouldn't treat it that way. My home is heaven and my work should be for that purpose. That can be hard to see for me in the weeds of raising little people, simply because there is so much physical labor to be done each day. Food to prepare, diapers to change, hands to wash, etc, but in the midst of that the more important work is to teach little hearts about Jesus and show them His love. So this ended up being a good lesson for me about my priorities. That really has nothing to do with a total flake-out on my end, but somehow that's what I got out of it. Probably another good lesson would be to double check the times on an invitation that's been on my fridge for two weeks!!!

Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

— 1 Corinthians 10:24