love-in-a-mist

I've been quite busy. On Thursday, I had book club at our house. I usually hold in our lower-level in the den. However, we were expecting more guests than normal so I held it in our main living area.

Our dining room, living room, entry, and kitchen all flow into each other and I keep most of the girls toys in the living room since I don't allow them to keep their toys in their bedrooms (I have this odd idea that children should associate bedrooms with sleep, not play). As a result, I had to move a lot of stuff around in addition to doing some deep cleaning.

The rooms look awesome now. So bright, shiny, and uncluttered. I know I have to let the girl's clutter move back in but...

Anyhow, after all that work we had six people. Oh well, dessert was awesome. I made the prettiest cheesecake I've ever made. I also made a fresh peach topping with Triple Sec and sugar. It was sort of an experiment and it was fabulous if I do say so myself.




Since I had worked hard all week and stressed out about my house all week, I decided to get out yesterday. I visited a friend who has four children. In addition to her four she was watching three other children yesterday. I spent the morning helping her with little tasks and chatting with her while the girls played hard. In the afternoon we made lunch, grilled ham and cheese with salami, cucumbers from my garden, grapes, chips, and fruit juice. It was amazing to me to see how quickly the kids inhaled that food.

After the kids ate, Barb and I grilled some zucchini and had our own sandwiches followed by left-over cheesecake from last night.

We had a wonderful visit. It was so much fun. I met Barb at church the first Sunday we started attending our current church. However, given the business of her life as a homeschooling Mom of four and the different schedule of our life we've never been able to get together. It was neat to get to know her better.




In addition to visiting with Barb I got to meet her knew dog. They adopted a six-month-old Goldendoodle. He was the most laid back, adorable puppy I've ever met (and huge). Now I am starting to think more about what kind of dog we want to get when Willow (our thirteen=year-old greyhound dies).




The result of having a super-clean uncluttered living area and spending a day visiting with a friend is that I am ultra-relaxed. :)