The kitchen counter, piled high with dirty dishes, was the reminder I encountered upon rising this morning....a reminder of how blessed we are with friends and food and fellowship...and a very full life together.
What a wild and crazy day!It started out with a trip into the city with Lura to a discount fabric store to purchase supplies for decorating at the wedding. Thirty two silk flowers, 4 purple turkey feathers, 3 bolts of cloth, 2 rolls of ribbon, 1 spool of thread, and innumerable decisions later we were headed back to AJ feeling like very successful shoppers.
The clock was already into the afternoon hours, the time I had planned on making the birthday dinner, when we rolled into town. About a mile from home I got a call from our friends who live up the mountain. They were in the valley running errands and looking for a cool place to eat their lunch. They arrived at our house shortly after I did and the plans for the birthday dinner expanded from 5 to 7.
As they ate lunch, I unloaded the dishwasher then we all headed out the door, Rob and Sue to run more errands and me to grab the remaining ingredients needed for the cake. By the time I arrived home, just in time to start the rice cooking, Jay was home. He headed to the backyard to work on the raised beds he is making in the greenhouse. After setting the rice to cook, I thew the remaining ingredients in the cake batter and put it in the oven to bake then started on browning the chicken and putting together the stew. Once the stew was on the stove I started on the broiled cake frosting for the coconut cake, all the while adding to a stack of dirty pans and bowls accumulating in the kitchen sink.
Our guests arrived just in time to help with final preparations. While Sue started cleaning up some of dishes overflowing in the sink, Lura cut oranges, strawberries, bananas, and grapes and I set the table and added bowls of peanuts, coconut, and Craisins to the condiment selection.
The stew and cake, along with the green salad, Rosemary Olive bread and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream provided by our guest was a feast fit for an African king.
Our merrymaking was cut short by our impending departure time and we blessed our guests and sent them on their way long before any of us ran out of words. We threw food in the fridge and left the counter piled with dirty dishes then headed out of the house for my second trip into Phoenix that day. Jay wanted to attend a Rosh Khodesh (new moon) service with our friends Pam and Joseph. While we dove Jay tried, unsuccessfully, to call his twin sister and wish her a happy birthday. We would have almost been on time for the 7 PM service if we hadn't hit a traffic back up. As it was, we arrived about 15 minutes late, missing the major portion of the teaching Pam was sharing but in time to join the worship. After the service we headed to Pam and Joseph's house to spend some time visiting with them. It was 11:30 by the time we left and I agreed to drive home giving Jay a head start on getting some sleep since he had todrive to Tucson in the morning.
12:30 AM. We fall into bed, tired to our toes, but stuffed full of blessings.
have enough toys for 600 Mexican migrant worker's children...
I've spent three days this week shopping for bargains and soliciting donations of toys for Mexico. This involved going to multiple stores multiple times, first scouting out appropriate toys for $1.00 or less, then returning to make purchases. Sometimes it required going to two of the same stores in different locations in order to find enough of a specific toy.
Although I love shopping and enjoyed this task, three days, even for a seasoned shopper as myself, is a lot of shopping!
The toys will be one part of what we bring as we participate in the Children's Day festival on Sunday. There will be a parade and refreshments along with pinata, clown and music provided by the locals. We will do Native American drum and circle dance with the children along with making "salvation bracelets, a prayer tent, Veggie Tales video, toy give away including several grand prizes, and 600 bags of candy.
My contribution will include a photo booth where I will take a picture of each child along with one of the Native Americans dressed in traditional clothing. Jay will print the photo along with a scripture declaration and a third person will help attach the photo to a mat and allow the child to pick a fancy sticker to decorate the frame. I'm hoping we can come up with a system that will allow us to photograph all the children so each goes home with their own picture at the end of the day.
