Odds and Ends Flying By

We had a great reception for our two graduates from college this last Saturday. Their younger cousin joined them and we all reveled in company and lemonade punch and cake.

The time wore on and it was getting late into the evening and I thought: Where are we going to find food for all these people; if we send them home they will faint on the way. Ta da. Never fear. My amazing son-in-law was up to the challenge. I sent him down to the house while the rest of us were cleaning up the church and asked him to inspect the cabinets and fridge and find anything at all for supper for about 17 people including women and children. So he fixed a pot of rice, beans, hot sauce stuff, and a pan of linguini with spaghetti sauce, and cooked some green beans from the freezer. We polished it off with punch and some more of the pumpkin cake...which was the best of the lot. (I actually didn't make that one; one of my marvelous seventh-grade students had volunteered to help with the baking on Friday. I furnished the recipe and the ingredients; she showed me how to work the mixer in the church kitchen--just like her grandma's--and made the most marvelous cake. I made and refrigerated the icing and my oldest daughter warmed it and spread it on the next day while I rushed down to the house and got ready for the reception. ) You see, I simply can't survive without everybody's help. Fortunately, people do help me out.

Mom and Dad and my brother and his wife stayed over and went to church with us the next morning. It had been a long time since I got to be with my mom on mother's day, so I was glad they decided the cows could get along without them for just one evening.

In other news, my new graduates bought me a new bedspread/ensemble for mother's day, a really pretty one with king-sized pillows, and my oldest daughter and her husband got me my own tiny shuffleupagus--or something like that. It's loaded with lively classical music and some weird Spanish/Italian/Australian Percussion with guitar music. The beauty of it is this: I now have armor for my music battles in the gym. Today, I listened and let it inspire me to new heights--fifteen minutes on the camel machine. (It may be called a cross-country runner, but to me...it feels like riding a camel)

Sorry that this post is rambling and not a lovely crafted story. It's May. There are finals tomorrow and Wednesday, awards to figure for Thursday, decorations to do, graduations to serve, and papers to grade. This post is just sandwiched in between them; it's a wonder it isn't sprinkled with red ink and smiley faces.