Busy Little Bees

That describes this weekend at our house.  As I type, the lawn is getting aerated which was supposed to happen last Friday, but there was that tree across a chunk of the lawn.  Saturday was family pics, followed by our friend bringing his dad's chainsaw and 9 kids (his and ours) helping/playing to get the job done.  It went quickly, and we were so thankful for the help!!!  We decided to have an impromptu (nearly) BBQ the next day so that Lucas would have a great reason to smoke a turkey that's been in our freezer for months.  Then we went on a double date and came home exhausted.  I still had homework to do and it's probably the first time I've fallen asleep while taking a test (fortunately it was an online one I could retake as many times as I felt like).  Sunday, it was  struggle to focus 100% on it being the Sabbath.  I will be better next week.  We blitzed the house and made a few preparations, such as Lily baking cookies, before heading to church. 

Side note:  Sunday School was really neat.  We went over several Isaiah verses piece by piece, and I could really feel the power behind his words...instead of just being mostly confused.  It helped that I asked questions/participated and others had insights to share to.  I felt quite well fed.  It is not my usual experience in Sunday School and now I wonder how much of that has been me???  No answers.

Then we came home and enjoyed Lucas's smoked turkey, green bean casserole, funeral potatoes made by our friend's daughter (delish!!!), rolls, my Peach BBQ sauce from this summer, fruit salad, soda/juice, and chocolate chip cookies.  5 adults talked and talked and 14 kids played on our little bounce house, trampoline and even Magic (that was just a few teens and tweens).  Matt was thrilled (heavy sarcasm) that his room was THE hangout for kids.  We fell into bed exhausted for the second night in a row...that's the adults, not the kids, talk about little Energizer bunnies. 

This morning I cleared up the last of what was on our lawn for the lovely aeration guy to come.  Then our kind neighbor/most awesome friend person watched first 3 kids until school started and then just Daphne as she does every Monday a.m. while I work, and Lucas and I got to help clean the temple.  I guess my job (crystal cleaning and hanging up the pretty chandelier bits) was a lot less labor intensive than Lucas's (scrubbing the font, cleaning all the glass and scrubbing up wallpaper glue from wood and marble).  Bless his heart.  They worked hard.  My delicate work was important too, but I feel like I got away with something because piecing those chandelier crystals up row by row and enjoying their cleanliness and shine and sparkle was surprisingly fun.  I'm thankful for a busy weekend, but here's to next weekend being a bit more low key (hint:  I doubt it due to trunk or treat and a piano recitial), but I promise for my sake that the Sabbath will be all about Jesus and family and not hostessing as well.  A day of rest, renewal and refocusing is a beautiful (often essential for me) thing.