Busy

 I know everyone always talks about how busy they are.  But for me, the last week or so has been a bit crazy.

Beautiful paper.

I've been invited to accompany our former neighbor when she sings for her cousins mission report this coming Sunday.  What an honor.  I've been practicing (and getting back into my wrist exercises from physical therapy).  Their meeting is early on Sunday and it's about 25 minutes across the valley, so an early morning drive will hopefully help me be calm.  They came over last Saturday to practice and what a delight it was to see them.  They will ever be dear to my heart.  They outclass, out-taste, out income and are our superiors in every way. But never have we felt inferior to them, or judged.  It was such a fun visit.

We've eaten out nearly every single day for the last week.  The Husband offered to take me somewhere today - that's a hard "no".  We've had Slackwater pizza, shakes at Chick-fil-A (a rare indulgence for us), Japanese Tepanyaki, R & R BBQ (they were fine with cutting their pineapple pork sandwich in half for us - it was just the right size then), Wildside Bowls (acai and so yummy) and somewhere else I can't remember.  In addition to being invited (a rare occurrence) to our son's house where he cooked us a luscious dinner.

In addition I've some of my favorite chocolate milk and Jr. Mints (thanks to my sweet friend) in the fridge, the rest of the Crumbl Cookies in the freezer (along with my Marie Callendar pie), a box of cookies - oh wait, make that two boxes of cookies...all waiting to be enjoyed.  How kind people have been about my birthday.  I've had cards and texts.   And I've prayed to remember all of this when at some future point I'm feeling a bit down / useless / invisible / inept and every other discouraging feeling that sometimes comes over me.  

I received some new walking shoes and a cute set of mugs from The Husband.  And our daughter made this stunning wreath - it's completely out of paper.  And very delicate.  It's hanging where it should be safe from sun and bumps and looks just lovely.  

Love The Husband!

We ran to Orem yesterday and picked up the new temple dress I'd finally found.  It's a long story - found two at the closer store but one was sewn kinda weird - the lining of the lace was all skewampus and hung funny and the other one in my size had black marks (looked like they'd oiled the machine and it was leaving marks on the thread) right down the front buttons.  So anyway, after locating another one in the Orem store we ran down and were treated so well!  I had saved up my money from selling my quilt frames and a few other things and had exactly the amount (she gave me a 10% discount - yay!) to pay for this.  Don't remember ever having this expensive an outfit before and it's pretty fancy for me.  But I think I will enjoy wearing it. My previous temple dress I think I got before we moved into this house - so a couple decades ago.  It was time for something new.  Another luxury for me.

From a friend.

Next week appears to be a bit busy.  We still haven't heard anything about the little service mission we applied for.  And we're ready for another little road trip, thinking about getting away for a couple nights for our anniversary.  But it's pretty much good busy not overwhelming busy. 

Although overwhelming seems to be the word of the day when it comes to the garden.  We are eating about 10% of the tomatoes and cucumbers we bring in.  The rest are given to the people we minister to, to neighbors and to, well, pretty much anyone who'll take them. Which is funny because yesterday's news contained an article about a virus that is decimating most of the tomato plants in the valley.  Ours are virus free, so far.  

So grateful today for those who treat me like I matter.  For birthdays that don't include much stress. And for something new, it's a not-often-luxury I'm grateful for.