The Show MUST Go On

 Do you ever have times when your day just doesn't quite go the way you had planned? What do you do? Do you panic, cancel everything and curl up in a ball? Do you pull up your boot straps and yell "I am woman hear  me roar"? Do you start dancing and singing "The show MUST go on"? I personally like the latter two options best.

Two weekends ago our church hosted a conference. The speaker came and brought his wife and two daughters. We had plans to have them and another family over for dinner last Monday. On Sunday we added another friend, which brought our group up to 12. A lot of people, but no worries. 

 (do you consider "family" only those by blood, or does your family extend to others in your life?)

Several of the guests had various food preferences and as I mulled over in my mind what I was going to prepare for all these people I knew it wasn't worth exhausting myself over. I finally decided on this menu: Grilled chicken (some with BBQ sauce, some plain), mashed potatoes, brown rice, corn on the cob, grilled veggies, salad and bread. I also made these yummy vegan chocolate cakes that were amazing. 

Things were going well, and then it got crazy.


The guest speakers daughter spent the night with us on Sunday and I had to have her back to the host home by 9:30 on Monday so she could do school. The original plan was to go home from there so my girls could do school and I would run to Safeway to get some last minute food stuff for dinner. I ended up visiting for just a bit and was ready to leave when my hubby texted me to see if I could take the guest speaker to the gym to workout. I said yes. Please keep in mind that I didn't mind doing any of the things that slipped into the day's schedule. I enjoyed it. I'm sharing them to show you that we don't have to get all worked up when things disrupt our perfectly laid out plans. He wasn't quite ready so we waited about 10 minutes or so. After dropping him off I decided to take the girls home and then go back to the store. Before leaving the gym I happened to check my e-mail and was hit in the heart with news that the daughter of friends had been killed that morning in a car accident. I stopped at the church to let hubby know, then called our pastors. I spent much of the morning fielding phone calls and texts as people found out. Our hearts were broken as we processed this news. 

After making sure my girls were okay I ran to the store. Oh, before all of this I found out that my girls and the speakers oldest daughter were invited to go horseback riding that afternoon. So I ran to the store, unloaded, made the sure the girls finished school and then we left to go riding. We had until 3:15 before we had to leave to take Kat to practice. By the time I got home it was 4:00 which gave me two hours to get the house in order and start dinner. Do you know how fast two hours goes by? I delegated the picking up of Kat and the speakers to my hubby because there was just no way I could do it all.

I usually delegate to my guests to bring food when we have company, but not this time. I took my time, enjoyed myself and decided not to stress. I enlisted the help of Nan to get some little things done, and by 6:30 dinner was ready and we enjoyed wonderful company. There were several little ones and I really didn't care if the house was chaotic, I wanted our guests to relax and not worry about their kids getting toys everywhere. I really don't care, it can be cleaned up later. I never bothered to let them know how crazy a day it had been.

 So, enjoy yourselves, don't stress, keep it simple and go for it, no matter how crazy your day is. Oh, and don't forget to enjoy yourself.
 
With Joy UNquenchable,