Life

A month ago we had all the teens in our church over for a pool party.  They had so much fun that the day ended with everyone exclaiming, “We should do this again!  Next time we want to ride horses and roast hotdogs over a campfire!”

That works for me.  I’m not quite sure how my house got designated the meeting place, but I’m happy to host events so that I know exactly what’s going on and am sure that everyone is being appropriately supervised.  And I know that the menu includes food that my kids can eat.

Then, just a week before the big day, I received an email:

Just wanted to let you know that I’m planning to have the Estate Sale next weekend. If there’s any chance that any of you might be able to come help, before or during the sale, I sure could put you to work, too! 

This was from the daughter of family friends who we miss very much.  Of course we would help – except my kids had already invited everyone over for the weeny-roast/horseback riding party at the same time as the estate sale.  What to do…

The next day we had a church picnic, which gave me the opportunity to talk to all the parents one-on-one.  I explained the situation and asked if it would be a problem if we postponed the teen’s party.  Everyone understood, and I promised to set a new date.

The teens had different ideas.  Instead of postponing their party, they thought we should move the date up.  They asked, “How about now?”

Now?!

We did it.  All the teens were promptly invited over to our place.  Even the younger kids had fun, since they thought that if the teens were having a party, the younger kids should, too, and invited their own friends.  The teens ate on the back deck, and the younger kids took their food out to the hay barn.  Everyone rode horses, then went blackberry picking and had a grand time.  Our kids didn’t lose their party, and we were still able to spend the week helping with the estate sale.

It was an exhausting week, but the estate sale went well.  I’d planned to start school last Monday, but decided to give the kids a week off to relax before they hit the books.  We needed the break because it’ll be a heavy year.

And of course, since it’s fall, we have more than schoolwork starting.  There’s fruit to put up, and it won’t wait.  The plums are finally ripe.  Apples are falling off the trees and peaches are in all the fruit stands.  By the time those are done, pears should be ready.  Between canning and schoolwork, I’ll be blogging less frequently.  Life goes on.

Thanks for reading.