Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Oh yah. NO ONE.

All right-I'm going the way of the blogging gripe. Just because I can.

So today was one of those days. Of course it was. Too many things to do, not enough hours to do it. And I made the mistake of splurging 45 min on myself to work out this morning. Keeping baby happy for that long since she woke up just 10min into my work out was enough of a challenge. Add to that children (duh), schooling, 6 loads of laundry, two baskets full of ironing that I was trying to make a dent in, and planning on feeding the missionaries tonight, and you know the only answer to that equation is frazzled mom.

I miraculously did get all the laundry folded and mostly put away, got some ironing done, got through most of the day's school assignments, and got started on food. When the cute little Elders come for dinner, I try to make it nice. So I made a nice dinner. Some of it was time consuming. Plus since I wanted to do cheesecakes for my shoe party tomorrow (btw-I'm having a shoe party tomorrow! heh), and I prefer them to chill overnight instead of just for a couple of hours, I needed to get started on those. No problem I figured! I can do that and get the house clean-especially since Aaron is home by 4:30 and the missionaries won't be here until 5, he can help finish up dinner and get the table set.

Whoops-didn't figure for dessert for tonight. Oh well, Aaron can just swing by the store on his way home. So I give him a call. But he hadn't left work yet. Oh. So much for that. Thankfully we were offered some peaches so we could go the cobbler route and dessert was saved. phew. The other things I needed I can pick up tomorrow. But the bummer-Aaron *hoped* he'd make it home before company arrived. great. Oh yah-I was supposed to go pick something up from someone, and drop something else off sometime between 4:30 and 5. You know, after Aaron gets home, but before the dinner guests arrive. So much for that.

I enlisted as much help as possible from the kids, and they did pretty well, but there's only so much they can do, and not much I can do with a screaming baby. It was one of those times where I look at breastfeeding and am slightly annoyed. I love nursing my babies, and I usually love the sit-down break it gives me during the day. But on a day like today when everything I needed to get done was not do-able while nursing, spending nearly 3 1/2hrs just sitting and feeding the baby was hard. But hey, she's still alive, more than plump, and I guess the breaks were good for me on some level.

So, at this point I threw cheesecake #1 back in the oven (it has a double cook time after a second layer) for it's 10 minutes, got myself showered and presentable (including make up and hair!) in less than 8 minutes (so as not to let the cheesecake overcook. And yes I showered this morning, but after mad dash cleaning and a lot of time ironing and the lovely hormones, I was a sweaty pig and needed another shower). I then strapped baby up in a wrap, hoped she'd fall asleep and let me delay her dinner by a little longer, headed back in to take out the cheesecake and put the rolls in the oven.

I was thrilled when Aaron walked in at 10 minutes to 5, although I'm sure he didn't think that when saw me. Sorry babe. And the missionaries were not early. Good news. So at that point I just prayed that the chicken actually cooked all the way through.

With Aaron home, my frayed nerves calmed, and dinner finally coming together, we waited. And waited. And waited. And then the kids started asking "when are we eating?" And food was getting cold. And so we finally called the guy who sets up the dinner appointments. No answer. OK. It's now 5:45. Hmmmm.... Finally we get a call back and Aaron asks "So...where are the missionaries?" "OH", replies said guy. "They had a schedule change and aren't going to be able to do dinner tonight."

For real?

Aaron-still calm and polite then asks "So when did they let you know this?" (thinking of course it must have just happened)

"Ummm, last Wednesday. I should have called, but I just, um, forgot."

You just "um, forgot"??? To let the chick with 7 kids,including a less than 2 month old, and who is still occasionally prone to PP moments, know that she wasn't actually feeding extras? When you had a week's notice?

Bless my husband for being patient and kind. He just said "ok-thanks" and hung up. I would have probably explained just why said guy should be happy he wasn't in my presence when he made this announcement, 45 min after we expected them.

And really-I should go to more effort more often to make "nicer" dinners for my own family. But on a day like today, knowing that I could have had just a slightly less stressful afternoon and evening would have been helpful. Oh well. The house was very clean, dinner was great (the chicken did cook all the way), and we even had a great peach cobbler for dessert thanks to James.

And not only did Aaron calm me down, take over making sure that dinner was ready and on the table, he read stories to the kids and rubbed my feet tonight. He deserves a big fat gold star for today. : )

(and my cheesecakes are chilling in the fridge!)