Wonderfully Exhausted!

Well, I rested all day yesterday, went to bed early, and then woke up with reflux an hour later.  Since I had to sit up awhile, waiting on my reflux to settle down, and I’d had a little nap, I thought I’d fill you in on what’s been going on since we got home from vacation.

We got home last Monday about noon.  I spent the rest of the day trying to play catch up.  Tuesday through Friday, I shopped and cooked for the weekend, cleaned house, celebrated Dennis’ birthday, took care of some CASA obligations, helped Dennis lay the wood laminate flooring in the den, and then get it fixed up for a guest room.  Then it was time for our meeting to start!

I had really been looking forward to this meeting since it was planned a few months ago.  The guys had asked for requests from the whole congregation for ideas for a theme.  For those who know me very well, you can guess what I suggested…and what ended up being the theme for the meeting:  “The Body”.  I was not disappointed!  The guys all did a great job on this very important subject!  Koh laid the groundwork with a very comprehensive look at “The One Body” and what it is.  Joe then talked about what the purpose of the body is.  Grant took a little different turn with his subject of Nurturing and Maintaining the Body and how that relates to the balance between love and truth.  Then John capped it all off with an excellent lesson on “Connections”…how the body should work together.  Aside from the good spiritual food we received, we also enjoyed a beautiful day at the park on Saturday, plus snacks and some relaxing time to visit at Layne and Heather’s that evening.  Then Sunday, we had a feast of a potluck!  I had been a little nervous about feeding the crowd under our current circumstances.  We lost the contributions of two of our older women who carried a lion’s share when it came to organizing, cooking and serving at our potlucks (one passed away and the other is incapacitated from a stroke).  Plus Mike had just had a heart attack, so he and Denice weren’t able to participate all weekend.  Roy and Dora have been focused on caring for Roy’s mother (who had the stroke) for months and couldn’t fully participate.  Plus we have several of our women who are chronically ill, plus another who was sick and couldn’t come all weekend.  That didn’t leave many to carry the ball!  But I was amazed at how well they did.  Our visitors were absolutely amazing, also!  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such helpful workers!  As soon as someone started a cleanup, everyone jumped in and had it done in no time! 

The singing, as usual at our meetings, was awesome…or as one person described it:  crazy!  We had some new faces this year, as well as some of our “old” regulars.  Everyone was thrilled to see Jared show up with his whole family!  We kept John and Heather with us and ended up with some new, special friends.  I absolutely LOVE keeping new families every year!  The only problem is that I want to keep them all from then on! 

 

It was a very emotional weekend.  I know it may come as a surprise to most of you, but I am a very emotional person.  *wink. wink*   These meetings really work on me and tears are common.  Certain songs cause me to choke up and not be able to sing.  Plus watching others who are going through so much right now breaks my heart.  It was beautiful to see the outpouring of love and support from everyone for Jared and his family!  We had a living demonstration of how the Body is supposed to work.

The meeting drew to a close Sunday afternoon, and we sadly said our farewells.  Dennis and I got to extend the fellowship a little longer, since Gray and Vicki stayed with us Sunday night.  I’m afraid that I was pretty much a zombie by then…not the best hostess!  But they were very gracious and understanding.  They headed home Monday morning, and Dennis and I did as little as possible for the rest of the day.  Hopefully we will have a little more energy today and start getting back to our “normal” routine.