Labor Day and Bonfires

Labor Day is usually anything but labor for the average person since many places take the day as a holiday and send their workers home to have a cookout. If you are a mom though and your kids are going to be home for the weekend, labor is an act of love. I have spent the last several days of my week preparing for the arrival of my daughter, her boyfriend-Jeremy, my son and his fiance-Mindi. I first worked on a prepared a menu for every meal we would eat in and also plans for if we ate out somewhere. Grocery shopping was necessary and using my list went smoothly.

Cleaning the house was next on the list. We needed to spruce up the upstairs bedrooms, change sheets and bedding, and make sure the cobwebs were dusted out. Since we have a bedroom on the first floor, our trips upstairs are few and far between. I also knew the weather was supposed to be great so I needed to clean the dust, pollen and dirt as well as a petrified toad out of the screened in porch.

Next up was preparing as much of the food ahead of time as I possibly could. I love to cook when my family is home, but I don't want to spend all of my time in the kitchen when they are there. So I baked a cake, fried some sausage for a breakfast dish, made homemade salsa and chicken salad for lunches all before anyone arrived.

Finally the work is done and my guests arrive. It was a GREAT Weekend. Holley and Jeremy met us down at the Cancer Patient Services fundraising car show where Brian and I decided at the last moment to take his 63 Lincoln Continental. (Our first car show by the way). We spent around 4 hours at the car lot showing off our car and also doing a couple radio interviews. My interviews were about the importance of early detection screenings, and Brian talked about his car a bit. It really was a pretty fun day and the weather was gorgeous!

After we cleaned up, we drove to West Baden and French Lick to allow Jeremy to see those southern Indiana treasures. We had a nice dinner in the dome and then road the old fashioned trolley down to French Lick for dessert. It was a really nice evening.

Sunday found us out on Lake Monroe taking in the sunshine and a relaxing time on the bouncing boat. I am not sure how many boats were out on the lake, but if the parking lot was any indication there were more than a few!

Sunday night David and Mindi came out for dinner and afterword we had a fire in the back yard and old neighbor John even joined us for awhile.

This morning I woke more tired than I have been for awhile but I also had a huge smile on my face due to the excellent weekend with my little family. Working on Labor Day weekend is wonderful if it is a Labor of Love!