Our Labor Day Weekend

Last Thursday night was a little rough.  And by "a little" I mean, I was kind of at the end of my rope.  And by "kind of", I mean I could no longer SEE the end of my rope, I was so far past it!

The first week of school was going well, but it was beyond busy.  I'd never done it as a parent before and everything was adding up to be more than I felt I could handle.

Friday, I called my mom crying at lunch.  I'd put something on FB that morning about the struggles of being a single parent and a friend offered a phone date.  I also emailed some good girl friends to tell of my struggle and to beg for prayers.

My mom was calm and helpful as always.  She had one, strong word of wisdom that I'm going to be clinging to in the days ahead.  She had some encouragement as well, which I oh, so needed to hear!

All three of my girl friends responded to my email immediately.  One with several scripture verses she was praying over me.  One offering a couple points of advice of how to walk in wisdom and with success as a single parent.  One offering to move her weekend schedule around to come visit.  And she did!

My family offered to come over for cards Friday night after J was asleep.  This is something we used to do quite a bit and it did my heart good to actually have some family conversation!

Jill and I had a phone date during J's gymnastics lesson on Saturday morning.  It was wonderful to catch up with her!  She's been a parent for 4 years and we have the same outlook on a lot of life's situations, so it was great to hear her perspective and wisdom!

Melody arrived Saturday night after J was asleep.  We had a chance to chat for a little while before we crashed.  J slept all night (Hallelujah!) and the three of us went to church Sunday morning.  I actually cooked lunch (which I LOVE to do, but hadn't had the time or energy in several days to cook a meal) and then J went to my parents house for the REST OF THE DAY.

Melody and I went shopping.  I bought a new watch and some make up.  Then we headed for the nail salon.  I need a pedicure and Melody got a manicure.  Pampering at its finest!  From there, we headed home for a bit, before meeting Becca, another good friend from Houston who was in town for the weekend, for dinner at Chuy's.

J slept all night again Sunday night!  (I think two nights in a row has only happened once before, so this was AWESOME!)  It meant we were up before 7:00 am Monday morning, but I'll take it! :)

Melody pretty much kept J entertained all day trying on shoes, painting toe nails and finger nails, building birthday cakes out of Legos and singing Itsy Bitsy Spider.  While they played, I was able to do 5 loads of laundry, decorate the house for fall and clean out the Harry Potter closet.  Fantastic!  In cleaning out the HP closet, J came into a LOT of clothes, too!  Hooray!

Melody hit the road around 2:00, and I dropped J off at my parents' before hitting the gym.  Then Mom, Dad, Angela and J came over for dinner.  AND, J fell asleep at 7:34 tonight, which means I have time to actually lay on the couch and breathe for a few minutes.

This was an excellent weekend!  One I needed very much!