Yesterday was busy right out of the chute, but it was all good. I had a seminary meeting at 8 am. I have to admit that I sometimes wonder why it wouldn’t be possible to have a Saturday meeting for early morning seminary teachers start at, say, noon. If I were in charge, I might think to myself that those dear folks might want to, say, sleep in! I am sure the planners are thinking, “8 am is the perfect time for a meeting! They get to sleep in till 6:30 am, how lucky can they be!” Okay, it’s only once a month and its a great meeting, so I’ll stop whining, but I do wonder sometimes.

After that, I taught a class at the yarn shop, which went pretty well. I had to announce that the next session date is changed because my friend is coming in from Seattle and we are going to NYC for a three-day extravaganza. It is always nerve-wracking for me to change a scheduled class, because folks have paid for it, but as always, everyone was gracious and kind about it. People really are good. Besides, the NYC trip will be worth it. Sara is one of my dearest, longest-lasting, most faithful friends, and she was nice enough to buy a plane ticket just to come and play with me. I think I can juggle my schedule a little bit.

Next stop was home to get ready for the New Member party at our house last evening. It is always a good thing to be able to spend an afternoon putting a little spit and polish on the house. I arranged books, cleaned up clutter, and got to dreaming about painting the LR/DR area (I am thinking about some sort of red or rich brown). I also have a vision for a new built-in book shelf. I am not sure I have the guts to build one without Jill here, but I’ll try. It would surround the entrance into the family room. I am also dreaming again about the kitchen. I’m thinking I’ll go with my original low-budget plan of painting the cabinets and getting a new counter top. It looks like the truck will be totaled, so a new car will replace the new kitchen in the budget book. We are thinking about a Honda Pilot. It is MUCH smaller than the truck, bu.t next year we’ll be down to 3 kids at home, so it seems reasonable. They get awesome reviews and we are a Honda family, so it will be good to be purists again.

While I was doing this, Evan had two soccer games. I missed both of them, but Eric was there. Sam had football practice, Johnathan went to Rehoboth Beach with a friend, and Sara had a quiet day to herself to sleep in, work on homework and be her sweet little self.

So, back to the party. It was great-we had almost 40 people there including us and Jann, who was my wonderful activities committee helper. That was almost twice as many as I was told to expect, but that’s a good thing because it made it much more fun. I had a total DOH! moment as everyone dug, or rather dove into the chocolate fountain. There were many small kids there (I just wasn’t sure who to expect) and it had never occurred to me that not every mom there would enjoy watching her children literally swimming in chocolate. We always bring it out for family parties, little kids and all, so it is just my go-to party food solution. It is messy, though. Everyone was super-nice about it and I got not a single complaint, but there was much wiping of shirts and faces. In my usual silly, second-guessing style, I was self-conscious about it the rest of the night. I hate it when I forget details like that and fail to make connections, but I hate it even more when I worry about stupid things like that. I hope if there are stains, they will be happy memories at least.

The party got over around 8:30, and the weather was so crisp and autumnal, I couldn’t resist blowing off the dishes and building a fire in our outdoor firebowl. It was wonderful-just enough of a chill in the air to make me actually need to move closer to the warmth. Eric came out for a little while, then we headed to bed with me smelling completely smoky. I do love to watch a fire. It was a nice, quiet, still way to end a pretty intense day. I slept very well, smoky hair and all.

This morning, I woke up early to see Eric before he took off for church, and have spent a luxurious couple of hours on the computer catching up with friends, researching Enoch for seminary and helping Sara get out the door for BYC in between. The dishes are still waiting very patiently for me, but the roast is about to go in the crockpot, so all is well.