Friday, the Engineer and I took a quick round trip (second Friday in a row) to the Guelph, ON area to spend a bit of time with family at a funeral visitation. It's not exactly the best way to spend time with family, but it was still a good visit albeit extremely short. Although this death was quite unexpected and not pretty for my BIL and SIL to have to walk through, his was a life well lived, and we have the confidence of knowing there is another soul in heaven.
Saturday morning, I hit the ground running! Start laundry, do a bit of cleaning, squeak in a photo session for my son and his girl who were both home for the weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day for a photo shoot. It hit 14 degrees Celsius which is pretty crazy warm for this time of year.
Once I was done shooting, I hopped back in my little car, stopped at home, switched about some laundry, grabbed a child for her theory lesson, went back into the city, dropped her off, texted the Engineer to remind him to pick her up after he and Peach were done at the youth program re-visioning session at church, and headed off to help cater a wedding. Although, I usually serve, this time I only did prep work. This is where we finish setting the tables, get started on cooking the food, and a multitude of other little things. A funny thing that I have learned while catering all kinds of weddings is that I am becoming very cynical about wedding hoopla. Sometimes, I look out over an intricately decorated hall, and think, "seriously!? What is a wedding about? The stuff? The party?" I always thought it was supposed to be a celebration of marriage. You know, the joining of two individuals. I am far more interested in the couple and watching them. Really, who cares what the hall looked like, what extras they have, if they have a cake, wedding favors!? But that's just me.
From catering, I scooted home to quickly change, move around some more laundry, and find something to eat (I wasn't organized or home long enough to even think of advanced meal planning for the brood), so I could head out with the family to a concert in the United States. We went to the Tenth Avenue North, All Earth is Holy Ground Tour and it was fantastic!! The concert featured I Am They, Hawk Nelson, and of course, Tenth Avenue North. I wish I could put into my own words, their words, how I was feeling, and what I was thinking. To weakly sum it up, it was a very praise and prayer filled evening for me! A much needed powerful God night for me!
I Am They
Hawk Nelson
Tenth Avenue North
All the bands.
The above concert images are shamelessly stolen from my hubby for his blog. He hasn't posted about the concert yet, but he will. He will also have more images -- if you're interested.
When we got home, all the children were off to bed, while the Engineer and I stayed up and got ready for brunch tomorrow. I finally crashed at about 2 am.
Up again at 6 am, I enjoyed a peaceful quite time and an unhurried morning (which is always good!!) getting the brood ready for church. I made sure my Children's Worship teachers were good to go, and got to sit through an entire service for once. It was Lord's Supper this week, so that made it extra nice to be able to focus entirely on the service and not have to go out the check on my teachers.
There were eleven of us for brunch (two extra children) and we as usual squeezed around the dining room table. I am beginning to think we need to start looking for a larger dining room table because I am pretty sure our family is going to continue to grow before it actually begins to shrink in size -- and there will be those times when they are all home with others in tow. It's a good thing! I love having my children and their friends/significant others here!
Once brunch was finished, the children scattered to various parts of the house. I had to fold all that laundry I somehow managed to do on Saturday because I needed to get the Boy packed to head back up to school. I actually love folding laundry and yesterday I was being quite entertained while doing so by a duo at the piano.
These two have a grand time together -- and they laugh all. the. time. It makes me laugh to listen to them. Oh, and don't let the video fool you. He sings amazingly too. He's just being shy.
Sunday evening was quiet. The Engineer took Bub back to school. Other children were back with their families. Most of my Littles were in bed, so Beans and I flaked out in front of the television and watched one of my favorite DVD's. It was some very much needed down time after a very full, very memorable weekend!
