Casual Get-Togethers – What’s Your Take?

So, yesterday’s post inspired a comment that inspired some questions in my mind, and I thought I would share with you!  I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on casual get-togethers with friends.

How often do you have friends/neighbors over to your house?

Do you always do dinner . . . or just dessert . . . or snack?

Do you set up activities for the kids . . . or just let them run amok, playing whatever they find to play?

What do you (the adults) do when friends come over?

How many families do you have over at once?  (We used to have a few families over any time we’d have guests, but as our family – and our friends’ families – grows the dining table is full with just a couple families!)

Do you have any fun recipes that you love to make for last minute get-togethers?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts and ideas!

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All Full!

Recently, Handsome’s Bible study group met and watched a leadership video.  I didn’t see it, so I can’t tell you all of the great details, but one of the things that man in the video said was that we all need to take time to do the things that fill us up.

That comment has inspired a discussion around here; we’ve been naming/listing things that fill us up.  I’m not just talking about things that you find to be fun, but these are the things that make you feel deeply satisfied, encouraged, and ready to take on the world.

Here are some of the things that fill me up:

• reading the Bible regularly and having the opportunity to discuss it with peers (like in my Community Bible Study group)
• spending time with Handsome
• spending the day with my kids doing things that we all enjoy – hiking, bike riding, enjoying a picnic, walking around the zoo, etc.  (This is distinctively different than the days that we do stuff that the kids like – playing at the children’s museum and the like, because I get to be active and enjoy verses just watching the kids enjoy.  Also when we go hiking, bike riding, etc. we often have great conversations with the kids; that fills me up!)
• being creative
• having a clean, well-organized home (since having four kids, I only ever get vague glimpses of this…but I know it is something I enjoy immensely)
• playing games/laughing with friends
• long runs while listening to praise music
• baking marathons (Before Christmas I had one day that I dedicated to baking.  I made about a bazillion things, all of them recipes that I enjoy making.  Various family members helped at different times of the day.  By the end I was totally physically exhausted, but I felt so satisfied!)

What fills you up?  (Leave some things in the comments or leave me a link to your own blog post that answers the question.)

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Comfortable

I had a conversation with a neighbor.  She mentioned that her family was more of a museum family than a camping family.

The next day, as I watched our children make themselves at home at our campsite, I began to think:

“I want our children to be as comfortable camping as they are in a luxurious hotel.”  (Understanding that both take skill.  Camping takes some outdoors know-how and a good amount of fortitude.  A hotel takes restraint, quiet voices, and the understanding that room service is indeed a luxury.)

I then began to think up other scenarios:

“I want our children to be as comfortable at a neighborhood bar-b-que as they are at a really fancy restaurant.”

“I want our children to be as comfortable on a long distance road trip as they are hoping on a plane to get there fast.”

“I want our children to be as comfortable in a museum as they are on a playground.”

There is so much in life to experience, so much to embrace, so much to see and do, and so much to enjoy.

Tell me:  How would you finish this sentence?

“I want our children to be as comfortable…”

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A Really, Really Informal Survey

After witnessing an interesting conversation about this subject, I’m super, duper curious…so will you please help me out and answer a question or two?

• Were you and your sibling(s) friends when you were younger?  Are you now?
• Did your parents do anything specific that either helped you to be friends or made you not get along?

If you have any wild stories, I’d love to read those too.  This sibling thing is intriguing!

For the record my only sibling is nine years younger than I am, so by the time she could talk I was firmly entrenched in all things middle school.  I liked her fine, but I was b.u.s.y, ya know!  I missed her a lot when I went to college though, and by the time I became an adult I really looked forward to spending time with her.  My husband was gracious enough to allow us a yearly trip to hang out, even when we lived far away and had to fly her to wherever we were living.  Now she is one of my dearest, closest friends!  We talk every week on the phone – for a long time…but I didn’t just admit that in writing!  As for my parents, I think they only thing they could have done better was have her a little sooner – ha!

So your turn.

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I Need A Little Help From My Friends

So, I need some ideas:

I love to send people cards or fun little gifts for their birthdays.  One year (about a billion years ago, before the post office got all uppity about things being perfectly flat) I figured out that I could mail a little pad of post it notes to my friends for the price of a first class stamp.  That year all of my friends got cute sticky note pads (with a Happy Birthday note on the front page) for their birthday instead of cards.  I spent less than I would have for cards, and they got something cute and practical.  Everyone seemed to like the twist.

Fast forward a lot of a couple years.  I need something fun to send to kids for their birthdays.  We have lots of long distance friends (a “bonus” of military life) and long distance cousins.  Some of them we send gifts to; most we just send a card or some sort of little fun thing.  This year it seems that I’m out of ideas.  So what can we send all of our friends and cousins instead of cards??? FYI – most of the kids are in the 3 yo to 7 yo range.  It needs to be something flat.  It can be a cute homemade card idea or a tiny gift idea or anything that will be fun for kids to open on their birthdays.

Any ideas are appreciated!

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On Returning Stuff

So here’s the scoop on yesterday’s post:

I was at the local Stuff Mart a couple days ago.  While I stood at the customer service desk (returning an unopened item, I might add) another lady was returning the mascara that I spoke of.  She had the package, though it was obviously opened; she very clearly stated that she had used it, but she was returning it because she didn’t like it.

I was sort of surprised, because I wouldn’t return an item that I had opened and used and could not be sold again – unless it was somehow defective.  I (like the rest of you who won’t stand in line) would either just toss it in the trash or stash it somewhere out of sight.  I don’t use mascara (’cause it makes my eyes burn until I want to pluck them out!), but I have bought a whole long list of other cosmetics, soaps, lotions, and such that have fallen into this category…so I was a bit intrigued by this woman’s policy, and for just a second I thought that perhaps I had been losing money for way too long.

In the end, I had to leave, lest my spy-ing become obvious…as I was walking away the customer service rep. was saying something about having trouble taking the product back (though it sounded like he was going to do it.)

And I just thought I’d ask all of you trusty folks what you think about returning used stuff that you didn’t like.  Thanks for your opinions!  I think I will stick to my old policy of stashing it in a drawer, but I appreciated hearing your thoughts!

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I’m Just Askin’… (Edited)

So, IF you bought a mascara and took it home and tried it once and didn’t like it…would you return it to the store and ask for your money back? Would you be happy with store credit?

I’m curious, and I’ll tell you why after you answer my questions…please?

(I guess I should have been more clear, but I didn’t want to taint your answers.  This really isn’t about me; I was just curious to know if you would return an item that had been opened and used and obviously not in sale-able condition.  Is that ok?  There’s more to the story, and I’ll publish it tomorrow…hopefully after you answer this new question.)

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Isn’t It Ironic!

Last week, I turned the washer to the hot water cycle and dumped in everything that was in the white portion of the laundry sorter…including a wayward red towel. So, yes, when I came back to my washer I realized that I had dyed a whole load of white laundry pink. I have never, ever done this – in more than twenty years of doing my laundry – NEVER! I was so very sad to see my beautiful, fluffy, absorbent, master bathroom towels pink instead of the bright white that they had been. Oh, how I wanted to cry!

Instead, I ran them through another wash load, then a couple rinses, and even a load with some bleach. It was all to no avail. My whites were still pink.

As I pulled each item out of the washer, I took an inventory of what I had ruined: two previously beautiful, fluffy, absorbent, master bathroom towels; several pairs of Handsome’s unders; a couple of his uniform white tees; a pair of Handsome’s white socks…or three; and then I noticed them, the things that I had not ruined! There were two pairs of socks that came through that wash like champs; they were as white as ever! What I want to know is that out of that entire load, why, oh, why is it that the only things that did not get pinked were a pair of my socks and a pair of Bubba’s socks – the two people in the family who would have been okay with wearing slightly pink socks, and ours are white as can be! That my friends is irony!

And so I leave you with this question: Anybody know how to get the pink out of my white towels???

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I Simply Must Know (or This Is a Desperate Cry For Help From Fashion-Challenged Little Old Me!)

Is it tacky to wear a black dress to a wedding? How ’bout if the bridesmaids are wearing black?

I have been dress hunting for a wedding that we will be attending in June, and oh, it has been dreadful! Everything is either too short, too low cut, or too expensive. The first dress I found that I loved (loved!) was this beautiful thing (let me just note that on me, it did not look nearly as low cut), and as I tried it on I tried to figure out how I was going to tell Handsome exactly how much I paid for it. Never got it figured out…and it wasn’t a perfect fit.

Then on Friday night I went hunting – not shopping – hunting! I found a cute dress that is fun…but it is black. So I must know! Please help!

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Oh, And Thank You!

Thank you to all of you that commented on my post about books for my six almost-seven year old! We tried Junie B, and the kids just weren’t that into her; they were a bit annoyed by her antics – oddly enough. But there were SO many great suggestions that we’ll be busy reading all summer long!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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