Conference Crunch-time

Wednesday night begins this year's mission conference. The Rooney family will be our guests. They are on their way to Great Britian. We have never met them before, but are looking forward to making their acquaintance tomorrow night when they pull in from Ohio. They have seven children, with #8 nearly due, so Mrs. Rooney will be forgoing this trip. It is my understanding that only about half the family, give or take a couple, will be coming.

The family is in a mad flurry of homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, and general uproar. I got the menu for this week planned over the weekend and the fridge, freezers and cupboards are now bulging. I am trying to get two whole days of schooling in so that the rest of the week will okay if we just get in partial days or none at all. It is a lot of pressure to get a full day of school in, plus feeding guests 3 times a day, AND having to be out the door on time for church everynight. So, whatever happens, happens.

We were able to accomplish a lot today, and tomorrow will be the basic dusting, vacuuming, mopping, and making sure everyone has bedding, towels, and the like.

Oh, I wanted to post this pic. It is a drawing Josiah did for art last week. We have been studying a little about eagles and their assignment was to draw a picture of one. Oh, btw... Josiah is 7.



I employed the useful tool of child labor today. Over the weekend one of the guys from church came over with a surprise... a new metal swing set! Someone annonymously donated to our children. It is really for the "littles", but I noticed the "biggers" have enjoyed it as well. I forgot to take a picture when we were all out side earlier, but will try and get one soon. Anyhoo, I wanted to put it on the other side of the house so I can see them out the kitchen window (for some reason I spend a lot of time in the kitchen!) before Dale buries the legs of it for stability. We had a bunch of the neighborhood kids over (our yard is the "meeting place" apparently) so I bribed them with choc. chip cookies and asked them to move the swing set. They did and I was out half a double batch of chocolate chip cookies that I had made earlier. I didn't mind though. :)

This week's menu, at least for suppers is as follows:
Tonight: leftovers dolled up into a crockpot creation
Tues: chicken enchiladas, veggie, applesauce
Wed: chili con quesa, cornbread
Thurs: ham, potatoes, peas, salad
Fri: leftovers from the ham
Sat: International dinner at churc (I gotta figure out what to bring)
Sun: either leftovers or potato bar and spinach salad

Breakfasts will be eggs, baked oatmeal, regular oatmeal, pancakes, etc. I have lots of options and I can figure it out as I get there. Lunches will be cold cut sandwiches and fruit, or leftovers, or a quickie casserole type thing. I have some cookies in the freezer, several loaves of sweet bread, and I was given several cake mixes (gasp.. NOT from scratch! I'm such a backslider!). Unless something unforseen happens, we are well set, and the cleaning is all on schedule.