It never rains...

It never rains... but it pours - invitations to dinner, in our case.
We've been trying to invite folks from the congregation over for dinner at our house on a fairly regular basis. Not only is it nice to get to know folks in different circumstances, but we also enjoy entertaining and offering hospitality - and knowing we have company coming is one of the best motivators for cleaning I know, which is a serious bonus.
When we first arrived here, we were invited to several members' homes for dinner, which was nice. For the most part, though, it's been a while since anybody has invited us over for dinner. I suppose having the Munchkin is a significant factor in that. However, yesterday after worship G and I each accepted a dinner invitation for the end of the week (on the same night). We decided to keep the invitation that he accepted first, and asked for a raincheck for the second invitation, which was graciously given to us. And then, this afternoon, mid-diaper-change, I answered my phone only to receive ANOTHER invitation for dinner, ON THE SAME NIGHT!
I don't think we're looking underfed (I'm looking extra-pudgily over-fed,  if anything), so I'm not sure how to account for the sudden arrival of so much meal-time hospitality. I'm not going to knock it, though. Let the parties begin!

Productive Produce

Today was my first regular day off since late June. And it was a pretty good day. One of the best things about it was actually getting to sleep until I was ready to get up; no alarm was set, the Munchkin managed to go back to sleep a few times. Glorious. The past few weeks have been a bit hectic - VBS last week, the week before we were at Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp as camp pastors, and the week before that was a Middle School Day Camp, called "Service Plunge." All three weeks were great, but all three weeks were BUSY, and meant that our regular schedule of who's in the office when (and who gets to stay home to Munchkin-sit) went directly out the window.
I'm hoping that our schedule works mostly as planned for at least a week or two. We'll see...
Another great thing about today was tending to some of the fruits and veggies we've purchased over the last few days: dehydrated the last of the strawberries this morning, and several pounds of Bing cherries are dehydrating now. We bought multiple bunches of carrots at our Farmers Market Saturday (for two years in a row we have inadequately thinned the carrots in our garden, so they're pretty dang tiny...). And today I made pickled carrots - something I haven't eaten in years, but which I remember eating a lot of as a kid. Then early this evening, we headed to a parishioners house to pick raspberries. We've still got freezer jam in the freezer from last year's crop, so we're just going to enjoy these fresh and maybe freeze a few for winter smoothies and bowls of Cheerios.


8 pints of pickled carrots. They got cooked a bit past "tender."
We're hoping we don't end up with pickled mush!

 After the Munchkin went to bed we sat out on our deck for the first time this summer (long story) and watched the sunset as we made a meal plan for the week. Then we watched a thunderstorm roll in to the south of us. Quite spectacular. (The storm, not the meal plan... though the meal plan should prove incredibly tasty, make the most of local fresh produce and what's already in our freezer, and lead to minimal food waste).
All in all, a good day. The to-do list was only partly completed, but then I am an over-ambitious list maker. And there's always tomorrow.

 -- Speaking of which, it's my goal to at least post a picture-a-day for the next week. I'm hoping it will help me pay attention to what's happening around me, and maybe I'll capture a few fabulous photos while I'm at it.

*8 Things: Simply Summer

Rachelle over at Magpie Girl posted this *8 Things list back at the beginning of the month. Now that we are definitely into summer here in Bozeman, I've been pondering my own list of things I "simply must do this summer." 1. Plant some flowers and then weed, weed, weed. 2. Read for fun and for education. (Currently reading The Lacuna, by Barbarab Kingsolver, and (Mis)Conceptions, by Naomi Wolf) 3. Get the baby's room ready. (Which means a lot of organizing/purging throughout the whole house to make room for the stuff that's lived in what will be the baby's room...) 4. Take naps. Lots of them. 5. Be a Farmers Market junkie. 6. Camp at least a couple of times. 7. Eat outside. 8. Do what can be done to keep the flavors of summer alive for the winter: make and freeze pesto, make jam, do some canning, dehydrate some fruit...

A day plus three years

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary. Grant says it feels like we've been married that long to him. To me - sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. I guess it's just a good thing it doesn't feel like longer than that, right? And it's a good thing that most days we're very glad to be married to each other. We celebrated with a tasty dinner out, at The Emerson Grill - gotta love it when a half-off coupon arrives in the mail on your anniverary! The food was yummy (especially the calamari appetizer) and the setting was cozy, too. Neither of us had eaten there before, so it was a good treat. Even with the coupon, by the time we had an appetizer and entrees we'd blown through the cash my parents sent, so we went through the drive-through at McDonald's and each got a $1 hot fudge sundae for dessert, which we ate at home snuggled up on the couch in front of the fire. Not bad! One of the songs sung at our wedding was "Grow Old Along with Me," which I first heard performed by Mary Chapin Carpenter. When our soloist wasn't able to make it to Arizona from Montana for our wedding, one of my bridesmaids and one of Grant's brothers pinch sang/played the guitar, and it was lovely. I couldn't find a video of Mary Chapin Carpenter singing the song online, though there are some touching video/photo montages folks have put together to the song available on youtube. Here's a version with just the lyrics on the screen.

Wahoos! and That Sucks!

I've begun a trend, I think, at church. Part of the beginning of each confirmation class of 10 6th, 7th and 8th graders each Wednesday night is a sharing of "highs and lows." Only, this group of students didn't really grasp the idea of highs and lows very well, so in trying to explain what I was asking them to share, I said something along the lines of, "Share something from the past week that made you say 'Wahoo!' - something that was good, or that you're proud of and feel good about. And then share something that wasn't so great, something you'd say 'That sucks!' about." So instead of "highs and lows," or "roses and thorns" as I was informed the Obama family shares around their dinner table (thanks to somebody's recent interview of the First Lady), both at confirmation and our new Saturday morning women's Bible study we do "Wahoos!" and "That sucks!" My "Wahoo!" of the week (among several), was the purchase of a new dining room table and chairs. One of the reasons we decided to buy this house is the fabulous formal dining room adjacent to the family room/kitchen great room. Yet we haven't had anybody over for dinner, since our kitchen table is a small Ikea affair with four not-very-comfortable folding chairs. Tonight we ate the inaugural meal in our newly furnished room, with our office manager and her husband. Not only did they help us get the new furnishings home in their pickup, they also take care of Violet the dog whenever we go anywhere. So steak and baked potatoes and brussel sprouts (chopped and cooked with bacon and shallots) and homemade peach pie it was. Not a bad night. Wahoo! (Of course I forgot to take a picture of the beautifully set table. That sucks!)