What A Weekend!

This weekend was exhausting.  But in a good way.  On Saturday, we had our church fellowship group over for dinner - it was our turn to host after all and it had taken a couple months to find a weekend that worked for most of us.  John and I spent the day doing food prep together.  It was fun one-on-one time while the boys played quietly upstairs with their Legos.  We made a triple batch of our "famous" hamburger buns (we're gradually feeding them to more and more people, so they will be famous eventually - I never buy hamburger buns anymore), and I made a huge slow cooker full of vegetarian chili.  It was a new recipe that I added some of my own twists to, and it was DELICIOUS.  I'm not big on spicy, but I loved the "kick" from this chili.  So good.  It was supposed to cook on high for 6 hours, but I had to turn it down to low after 3 hours because it was so full it was boiling over!  We had enough for the people who wanted chili and probably at least 3-4 meals worth that I've put in the freezer for later.

Saturday amazed me.  Because I've been working on clearing out our home of things we don't need and simplifying our life, Saturday was the first time EVER that I have had a large group of people over and have not had to stress out about how my house looked.  Usually, by the time people get here, I'm out of breath and sweating because I've been cleaning and straightening like a mad person.  I didn't have to do that on Saturday.  On Friday, I swept, mopped, vacuumed, and dusted and that was it.  My house was ready.  All I had to do on Saturday was make sure food was ready.  It made the fellowship dinner so much more enjoyable.  If you haven't already, you can follow our journey to simplicity here: The Simplicity Challenge Blog.

So we had a great time Saturday night (and I got to snuggle with a baby).  Sunday morning was the first morning of a new Sunday School format at church - an intergenerational group, so the kids stay with us.  Aiden and Nathan weren't very interested, so they sat over to the side playing with blocks, but it was fun to really feel like part of an interactive group rather than just sitting and listening to someone talk.

Right after church, we headed out to Banks (and I mean seriously out in the boonies) to John's company picnic.  One of the bosses has a huge property (a former Christmas tree farm, we learned), so there was plenty of room to hang out and play.  One of the things I love about the company is that everyone seriously treats each other like family.  I don't see John's bosses very often, but we're able to laugh and talk together like good friends.  They had catered Dave and Busters (YUM!) and then we spent some time playing badminton and frisbee.

But playing badminton is where things went terribly wrong.  In case you weren't aware, I'm accident prone.  VERY accident prone.  And it had been a few months since I'd injured something.  About 15 minutes into a game, I swung the racquet quite vigorously and felt something pull in my upper right arm (my dominant arm) by my shoulder.  Like the very smart person that I am, I ignored it and swung again.  This time, the pulling sensation was sharp and my entire arm seized up.  I didn't want to alarm anyone, so I said that my arm was beginning to hurt and passed the racquet along to someone else.  By the time we got home, I couldn't use my arm and it was swollen.  It's still the same today, although the pain feels dull and deep rather than sharp and tight.  Oh the things I do to myself.

What a full weekend.  I was ready for bed by 9pm last night!  It reminded me how lucky we are to have such wonderful friends and coworkers.  We'll be back to the same boss's house in a few weeks for the annual pumpkin carving party!  I'll probably avoid the badminton game.