A busy week!

I mentioned some time ago that I had five events to manage in the course of a month. Three of them are finished (two birthdays and Easter), and now I'm down to the last two, which are only a few days apart.

This Friday, we'll be having one of our Ladies' Teas. The picture here is from the last one, hosted at my house, while this one will be at my co-worker's home. I post it because anyone who has ever planned such an event can see by the table how much work goes into this--not all mine, of course!
Doesn't it all look scrumptious? There is one lady who comes to every tea and never fails to tell us that we've prepared a "feast for the eyes," as well as the palate, so it is all very rewarding. This is actually one of my favorite things to do in spite of the work involved.

We plan a theme for each tea, and I make pretty invitations, so that each tea feels like an "event" or a party. We sometimes include theme decorations on the table if it's not too complicated. I plan a short devotional on the theme, and we send each lady home with a small themed gift--we've given pins, bookmarks, homemade jelly (I didn't make it!), and things like that--nothing expensive or cumbersome!

For this tea, the theme is "seeds," and we are giving packets of seeds--nothing too complicated about that!

For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give her dew. Zechariah 8:12

Don't ask me why, but it sounds much more poetic in Polish.

In any case, I'm baking goodies this week--butter tarts, pumpkin bread, cream-cheese mints and probably something with fresh fruit that I haven't figured out yet. (We often use these events as an occasion to experiment.)

And next week, about five American families will be getting together, for a total of some 25 or more people, and that will be happening at my home. We're planning a much simpler menu for that--your basic backyard picnic with grilled food, salads, chips, and drinks. I'm enlisting 13yo E. to bake a few batches of brownies, and it will all be good. I'm planning to set up the kid-sized tents in the backyard, and get out scooters, balls, hula-hoops, jump-ropes, as well as the mini trampoline and rocking horse. That should keep the majority of the 10-and-under crowd busy. My teenagers tell me emphatically that kids their age don't want planned games, so I'm planning to leave them and their friends to entertain themselves. In the event of rain (please, God, not), we have a miniature billiard table, movies, and the rocking horse and tents can be set up inside. But I do hope the sun is shining that day, or at the very least, it isn't raining.

And when these two things are done, I'm going to breathe!

If the blog seems a little quiet for the next week or so, now you'll know why.