a long weekend!

Well, I am definitely feeling a little beat physically today, but totally energized from our weekend!  After a quiet morning of cleaning at home, we headed out to my parent's house to pick up my brother, practice music, and then we also stayed for dinner.  When we got home, kids went right to bed, and then the three of us stayed up eating ice cream (our feast day! soooo good) and the boys played video games, while I worked on...blech...taxes.  Except, I already FINISHED our taxes for last year.  Then after we received our refund, we got a letter in the mail about our taxes from 2011, which apparently were wrong.  I finally finished reviewing every thing today and because of all the weird stuff with being self-employed while working as a pastor, some numbers got added wrong and basically we weren't supposed to get a refund last year, and now I'm paying it back.  Actually, the amount they are asking for is less than what I think we actually owe, so  at least I can just send in a check and be done with it. Thankfully we got a huge refund this year, so its just kind of like that portion of it never existed.  Still kind of a pain.  I also realized I was out of checks when I went to write one, so had to reorder those too.

ANYWAY.

Sunday we got up bright and early at 6 (after going to bed at 11), got the kids ready, had a cup of coffee and a toasted croissant (such a glorious treat after being on our fast all week), packed up the car, and headed out to catch a 7:55 ferry.   Shea always the best time on the ferry.  Here he is hanging out with Uncle Matt (who he thinks is pretty much the coolest person ever).

We got to the church a little after 9 and started setting up.  The sound team was so nice.  Actually, everyone there is so nice.  I met a lot of people and actually had real conversations with them, more than just "nice to meet you, where do you live, etc."  The music itself went really well.  Of course, not perfect, but we had a good time, I felt totally comfortable, and really wasn't worried in the least what any one else thought (which is     a strange thing for me).  I think people were pretty receptive and positive about it, and the guy who was leading worship before is really friendly and seemed very excited about us being there!  So I feel pretty positive about it all and I could definitely see us being a part of that community.

Jeremy just said to me, "You're such a bragger blogger!"  Only because I am typing on here instead of paying attention to him.  Oh well.  So I am, so I am.

Anyway, after church and the potluck, we went to Ikea.  And bought new plates.  Kind of random?  Well.  In our quest to simplify, I have decided to get rid of my china which I NEVER use.  It seems ridiculously excessive to me to have plates that sit in a china cabinet, maybe get used 2 to 3 times a year, and are basically for "show".  So, I am giving the to my sister in law who has the same set, and she is excited to have more place settings, and I know she will actually use them.  Now, we also had all these mugs that matched our regular dishes and we have been wanting to get rid of them for a while since we have never liked them or used them or needed them.  Well, the couple who wanted them was also interested in plates if we had any.  So we decided to give them our regular dishes to complete their set.  And we went and got two packs of plain white dishes from Ikea.  I really like them.  And this way they can be "dressed up" for holiday or special dinners, but also are great for every day.  Oh, and cheap and easy to replace if a child breaks them.  We only have one set out right now, the other is still in the box so if we move we can just take them as if.  We don't really need more than 6 anyway, since I wash our dishes by hand mostly.

I cleared up so much space in my cabinet, I finally have room for my jars of dry food.  Here is my happy cabinet:

Ah.  So simple and happy.  I love seeing space between things.

After that, we went to Coulon park and let Shea run like a crazy child.  It's amazing how much stuff he can do on the playground by himself now - he is getting so big!  Then we went to my sister's fiance's townhouse to hang out and have dinner.  He lives there with two other guys, but they are hoping to be able to move there after the wedding, because the guys are moving out.  They just don't know if the owners will continue the lease or not, because originally they wanted to sell.  Its a super cute little place, so I hope it works out!

We finally got home around 9:30 or so.  Long day, but good!  And I am already looking forward to going next Sunday. I haven't felt that way about church in a long time. :)

We are back on our fast again today, and I found this blog over the weekend called Empowered Sustenance.  She has  TON of grain/dairy free recipes on her blog, so I'm going to try this for dinner tonight. We'll see!  Sounds a little weird, but possibly delicious.