A Monday In the Life Of

A Monday in the life of me.

Start the day at 6:00 am after 6 hours of sleep. (Never the plan, pretty much always happens.) 

Get ready for the day, have Bible time, try to eat breakfast if I have time, and touch base with Mom and Dad. 

Leave for work at 7:30. 

Care for the two and three year old all morning, feed them lunch, get them to naps, and then work on blogging, school, drawing, other writing, reading, etc until 2:00 pm. 

Try to get the GPS to load. Find the address for Lowes and make first mistake- turn off the GPS that is still not loading thinking I can make it just fine. 

Take the exit for Loop 288 because University Drive is also called 288. End up on the actual Loop 288 and drive all the way around Denton. 

Take the first exit that I think I recognize the name of. Go down that road for a few miles and decide to turn around. 

Finally make it to University Drive. *Trumpets sound and angels sing* Can't find Lowes. *Radio crackle sound that signifies an unclimaxical event* (Yes, I just made up a word.) Spot a Starbucks and decide to stop to orient myself. 

Calculate how long I can relax. Not long. Only half an hour. 

Look up directions to Lowes on GPS and head out, with the GPS on. 

Arrive at Lowes and realize that if I had stayed on the road for about 2 more miles instead of turning around earlier I would have made it. 

Walk 3/4 of the store trying to find the products Dad sent me to get. Find out I'm going to need a cart. Walk all over the place again to find a cart. Who in the world thought it would be funny to not put those by the door? 

Load the cart with closet supplies. Realize that they are closet supplies and I was sent for garage stuff. Unload cart. Reload cart with correct items. 

At the check-out blank out on what the pin number is for the debit card. Finish there and load the car. 

Turn GPS on to get to Staples. 

Arrive at Staples just fine. Finally. 

Pick up the log of plans for Dad. 

Head out for the first time since leaving work confident of where I am going. Actually confident. 

Deliver plans and head home. 

Reach Ponder and seconds before crossing the railroad tracks the arms go down. Know from past experiences the train that is STOPING just close enough to make the arms go down without actually blocking the road could be there for up to an hour and decide to turn around quickly before getting locked in by other cars. 

Try to take the only way around to get home. The train is one car too long to not be blocking the tracks. Aka- I couldn't cross there. 

Attempt to go further to go around, but get lost in sketchy-looking neighborhoods. 

Go back. 

Start laughing at myself because otherwise I would have melted into a puddle of tears. Apparently the arms had gone right back up moments after I turned around. I could have totally skipped that 20 minute drive. 

Arrive home with just enough time (15 minutes) to get a snack and leave to go babysit. 

Enter the home where the small group is meeting and receive a baby. Sit in the midst of four babies and enjoy their sweet smiles. 

Tell the babies good-bye and settle down to play with 4 two and three years olds. 

Finally get home at 9:00 pm. 

Tell my family I'm going to bed even though they have decided to stay up late to finish a project. 

Prepare for Kate coming the next day. 

Shower and get ready for bed. 

Eat something. 

Clean the kitchen. 

Walk through the house tidying. 

Do some laundry. 

Actually go to bed at 11:30 pm. 

Okay, so not every Monday looks like that, but pretty similar. Aka- I don't always have errands to run for Dad. And I rarely get lost. Only every once in a while, like every two weeks or something.

I didn't need gas when I left that morning, but it was on my list of things to do while out. By the time I finished driving all over *asks Siri if I'm in East or West Texas* West Texas I needed gas, but didn't have time to get it. 

I wasn't exactly ever really lost, I knew basically where I was, I just didn't know quite how to get where I was trying to go. Go ahead and laugh at me (I laugh at myself for this), but if I think I sort of know how to get somewhere I purposely don't use the GPS to see if I can get there on my own. I don't want to rely on it all the time. Also I like saying I didn't need to use the GPS, but on the other hand I don't like running out of time and gas and getting almost lost. 

Me refusing to use the GPS when I know it's there and I know it can help me and I know it is provided for me to make things easier could be compared to us when we chose not to accept Christ as our Lord. We know He is there, we know He can help us, and we know that His burden is light and His road is easy, but some (or most, or all) of the time we push Him away and say "I've got this, I can do it on my own." 

It's not a perfect comparison, but it came to mind while I was driving on Loop 288. Please don't think that this is how I think (I was praying I'd figure out where I was most of the drive actually). And that was NOT my reason for not using the GPS (the main reasons being it wouldn't load first of all, but also I'm not allowed to use my phone while I am driving so I actually couldn't use it when I was sort of lost).