Preparing for Company

I'm going to have to write these "small glimpse into our life" posts more often because it allows me to share quick, short, mini-stories from our day to day life that I want to remember but don't always, in and of themselves, warrant a full-blown lengthy blog post.

On that note... more glimpses from our life as I prepared for company yesterday.

We are hosting a Memorial Day Cookout today with just a few families, all of whom have young children the same age of our kids.

So, I figured I would throw together an easy but delicious fruit salad... well, note to self.  The easy fruit salad takes about four times as long once you remember that you're cooking for families with toddlers, and toddlers need apple and pineapple pieces cut to a much smaller "bite size" than adults do.

Whenever I cook or bake something while the kids are awake, I've always sort of adopted the philosophy, "I am trying to be productive in the kitchen... so I surrender the rest of the main floor to the forces of my children."  It's not a perfect science, but it usually results in my cooking or baking a relatively successful dish that is not burnt beyond edibility.  Well, after spending about an hour (on and off) in the kitchen creating toddler-bite-sized fruit salad I surveyed the rest of the main floor... my kitchen philosophy does not work so well when we're having company the next day.  The fruit salad might be ready for company, but the rest of the floor looked like a tornado swept through.  I need a new system when I'm cooking for company.

Lastly, in an effort to recover some damage to the family room, I said to the kids,

"If we can get this room picked up a little, we can have some time in the bounce house before bath time."  

(Because the rule is that the bounce house cannot be inflated until all toys are put away and the floor is picked up.)

Tracey did not miss a beat and replied, "I'll sit right here and watch you guys."

Ummmm... excuse me?

Those were funny parts of our yesterday.

Happy happy Memorial Day to you, and please take some time today to remember those who have sacrificed so much to keep our country free for so many generations.

Just as I type that, I am so humbled to look back up on this post and realize how much freedom was wrapped into our yesterday.  I cannot even list every freedom we enjoyed yesterday from the activities we chose to do, to what we wore, to the fact we attended church, to the fact we live in our own home that we chose to buy, to the fact that my children played while I prepared for friends to come over tomorrow, to the fact that we're expecting our fourth child, to the fact that my husband was working all day in a job that he chose to take that he enjoys doing, to the fact that I make the rules in my house with my children, to that fact that my three year old was free to jump in with her opinion about cleaning... and I was free to correct her on who all was going to help clean the living room.

Trying to understand and quantify freedom to an American-born citizen is like trying to describe water to a fish.