When you live alone, evenings can be quiet. I come home from work around five-thirty, turn on Netflix to watch an episode of Blue Bloods, while planning an activity for tomorrow’s reading lesson. Some days, I convince myself to eat my dinner while watching a second episode. Man! Even after all these years, Tom Selleck still makes my smile. Shortly afterwards, I take a nice warm bath while reading a little and begin settling down for the night.

Friday Teacher Tired

Then there are other days when I am going non-stop! Recently, I had one of those days. It began with a grocery run on Friday evening. If you are a teacher, you know that the brain doesn’t work very well after a week filled with kiddos, especially after 28 years of teaching.

My list was a mile long, and I did not have any extra time to spare. I could not forget any key ingredient. Three kinds of juice, ginger ale, blue Kool-Aid, and pineapple sherbet for baby shower number one. Rachel had asked me to make some chicken salad for a college study group. Since she was going to be home that weekend, it was the logical time to add that to the list. In addition, I needed the ingredients to make homemade veggie soup for baby shower number two. From there I was off to the baby isles looking for a few last minute gifts.

Then I began gathering some weekly items for myself, but my thoughts drifted back to the veggie soup amounts in my head. I had volunteered to make it in a large cooker. The problem was that I had never made that much soup before, and I really did not know how much the cooker would hold!  So, I stood in the grocery store with my hands full of veggies. This will be enough; no, maybe another pack of green beans. Wait! I need another pack of ground beef. My thoughts debated back and forth until I decided I needed more of everything!

Unpacking the car and sorting all the ingredients into their proper stacks, I dropped the chicken into the crock pot and dropped myself into the bed, exhausted.

Up and Running

The next morning I rose at 7:15 and headed straight for the kitchen. Taking the chicken out of the crock pot, I shredded and jazzed it up with chopped nuts, celery salt, sliced grapes, and cream cheese. Then I divided the proportions into their proper containers, so that my oldest daughter Lindsey could have some for her lunch that week also.

Speaking of Lindsey, she had asked if Rachel and I could go to her house to hang out before the second shower began. Having both my girls in one place is not so common at their ages, so I had jumped at the opportunity. Of course, I had not thought through all the items that would need to be packed and taken to her house. I cut up two onions and browned the five pounds of beef that I finally decided on purchasing. Then I started putting all the veggies, beef and chicken broths, and meat into a large cooler. I gathered up all the punch ingredients, packed a quick bag with a change of clothes and headed out the door.

Punch and Soup

Getting to the church, I found my friend Deborah (who is the great-grandmother of the new babies), unloaded all the punch stuff and began making both bowls, one for the girl and one for the boy.  If I do say so myself, the little yellow ducky was cute floating around in the blue punch. I gave the new mom a quick hug and her present and apologized for not getting to stay.

Around two standing in Lindsey’s kitchen, I began sauteing the celery and dumping item after item into the cooker.  The contains grew and grew as I kept dumping it into the cooker until there was no more room. Ugh, I think I over bought a bit! Rachel carried the 17 quarts of veggie soup to the car while I changed clothes, and we left the other five quarts on the stove simmering.

The second baby shower was a celebration for one of our dearest friends who became a mom through God’s timing and miracle of adoption. What a blessing to be a part!

Geronimo!

Smack-dab in the middle of this busy day, was a little jump! Lindsey had raised money for The Green House in Dalton which offers counseling for children and adult victims of sexual assault. If you raised $1,000, you would find yourself rappelling down the side of a five-story building in downtown Dalton. She had never rappelled. This adventure was tucked into my college day memories, where I thought it would have stayed. But, a mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do, even when she is 51!

What a day!  What a wonderfully action-filled day: Helping a friend with a granddaughter’s baby shower, having a part in the celebration of a miracle adoption, climbing down the side of a building, and enjoying an ice cream with two of the sweetest daughters a mom could ever have!  

     And guess what else! I have plenty of veggie soup in the freezer for a cold day.  Life is good.