New Year's Resolution

I haven't made a resolution in years and hadn't planned on making one this year. Until today.

I have a never-ending list of things to do around the house and my list seems to get crossed off pretty slowly. I work all day and when I get home my husband leaves for work so there is never any time to even think about that list during the week...except to add things to it of course. Weekends are spent running errands, buying groceries, doing laundry, etc... there's no time for crossing things off lists, much less any time to visit with friends.

I usually get to tackle my lists on school holidays and was pretty excited about the 2 week Christmas break. As we were driving to Fort Worth to see my dad I made a 'bonus' list of things I still needed to do for Abby's birthday party which is Saturday. You know...go to the store to buy all the food, buy prizes for the games, buy goodie bags and the goodies, bake the cake, make the icing, frost the cake, clean the house-if that is truly possible, and so on. I figured I could get most of it done today. Actually, I know I can't go to bed tonight without having the cake close to finished, I never know how many hours the decorating process will take. It's crunch time ya know.

Last night a dear friend asked me if I wanted to get together today and let the kids play while we visited. We had a playdate over the summer and I swore I'd try to spend more time with her throughout the year. As much as I wanted to see her today (and needed to), I started writing her back to tell her how it was impossible, I have too much to do to get ready for the party. Then I stopped....erased my reply, and told her that YES, I absolutely wanted to get together. And we did!

Julia and her husband met us all for a lovely lunch at the neighborhood park and then when Jack Frost snuck up on us, we walked down to our house and had a wonderful visit while the kids did what kids do, play, play, play.

I must say it was surprising when her little boy came in to ask her to help him snap his pants as Lauren had taken them off. I could not imagine why on earth Lauren would do such a thing. So we asked, "Lauren, did you take his pants off?" "Uh-huh. We were playing doctor."

"Oh."
"WHAT?"

And her reply made perfect sense: "I have to take my pants off at the doctor's office to get a shot. I was giving him a shot."
PHEW!
We had a good laugh.
After they left Lauren cried and cried. She would mope around the house and say, "I miss Dominic." Then Caleb would do the same thing, "I miss Dominic." 30 minutes later we were threatening her about her crying. Even when she went down for her nap, she was asking when she'd get to see him again.

Today's visit was wonderful. I thought about how wish I could do it more often. I always tell myself we'll have our friends over for dinner sometime but I never seem to find the time to invite them. Weekends are for catching up, right?

So back to my New Year's Resolution. My resolution is to spend more time with friends. The house can wait. The organizing can wait. It will always be there. Making memories with friends won't be there unless you make time for it. So whatever your resolution may be, be sure and focus on what is really important!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!