The fates were aligned against me...or a lesson in Gratitude

Finally this week is over...and what a week it was.  This week I had the Relief Society Christmas party to pull off  on Wednesday and then the i had a table at the Milk River Craft Sale on Friday. I think to best give you an idea of how this week went, I'll write out the time line.

Saturday
afternoon(11am-6pm) -  head to Lethbridge to do some grocery shopping and pick up some material to fix a dress for  my sister-in-law.
6pm - head home to Milk river, eat supper in the van so the kids aren't cranky with me.
8pm - put kids to bed
8:30pm - start sewing on the dress for my sister-in-law
8:40pm - sewing machine dies....dead, just stops. I believe I blew a fuse. This is not good. I have projects that I have left to the last minute that need to be done for the craft sale on Friday.
9:00pm - call my mom and beg to use her sewing machine for the week. Of course she agrees, because she is my mom and she loves me.
9:10pm - call Daniel at his mom's house in Lethbridge because he is stay over night (because he has a stake meeting in Lethbridge at 8am Sunday morning) to tell him to go to my mom's house to pick up her sewing machine to bring home.
11pm or so I head to bed after working on some other projects that don't require a sewing machine.

Sunday
Morning - go to church, teach my class and do the sharing time for primary and briefly say hello to my husband somewhere in there.
Afternoon - Say good bye to my husband as he is off again, this time up to Calgary for business until Tuesday night. I send with him my dead sewing machine to drop off at my mom's because she is going to drop it off at the sew machine fix it place on Monday.
Evening - fairly relaxing, just hanging with the kids. I head to bed early.

Monday is a fairly productive and uneventful day My mothers sewing machine sews like a dream. I think I might steal it. Again I head to be early.

Tuesday - I feel stressed. I need to get to the church to set up for the RS party that is on Wednesday night, but I don't know when Daniel is going to be home from Calgary and he is not answering his cell phone. We can't start setting up until after 8:30pm because the YW and YM are in the gym. My kids will be in bed by then and I can't find anyone to be at my house so I can go set up. I do get some sewing done for the craft sale, but not nearly as much as I had the day before.
4pm - Take Kathryn to Clogging lessons
5:10pm - come home, call to double check on the babysitter I had lined up for Friday afternoon while I am at the Craft show. She says she is still good to go.
5:20pm - Check phone and see that Daniel has called. I call him back. He is in Lethbridge already! Horray, that means he can be home by 8pm so that I can go to the church to set up. Feeling Less stressed.
5:30pm - I go to phone Sue to tell her that I'll be at the church at 8:30 to set up and I notice that I have a voice mail message. I check the message. It is the babysitter that I thought I had lined up for Friday saying that she won't be able to babysit because she forgot she was going to be away.
5:31pm - enjoyed my 30 seconds free of stress...now I have to solve a new problem.
5:32pm - call Sue, tell her that I'll be at the church, she asks how I am doing, I hesitate, she tells me to spill the beans, so I tell her my dilemma. She talks it through with me, offers to tend my kids when she gets off work at 4:30pm. So now I just have to find some one to watch them from 1-4:30pm. She suggest a few people. I make a note to talk to them on Wednesday.
8:30pm - Daniel gets home from Lethbridge, I give him a kiss and head out the door to set up at the church
Midnight - come home from the church, go to bed, but lay in bed talking with my husband for a couple hours...after all we haven't really seen each other since the Friday morning before.

Wednesday- I am tired...exhausted. Today is not a productive day. I don't get any sewing done. I try to have a nap, but my girls don't think that is a good idea. I make a few final preparations for the RS Christmas party. Have a shower, hoping maybe it will rejuvenate me. When Kathryn gets home from school we head to the church to finish setting up for the party.
5pm - done setting up, so I get changed into my nice clothes, put some makeup one tell myself that it's going to be a fabulous night...once Daniel gets there to take the kids away.
5:45pm Start greeting the sisters as they arrive.
6pm - the party officially starts.
6:15pm - Daniel arrives and takes the girls home.
6:16pm - I finally relax and start to enjoy the evening, which turns out to be wonderful. The theme was "Celebrate with Gratitude". We had over 70 sisters there, and I believe at least a third of that was non-members(I love being part of a small community). After all was said and done, I had so many people come up to me and tell me that this is what they needed to hear, both members and non members. Perfect. That is what I love to hear. It is so satisfying to know that you were able to put together something that really meant something to some one, or touched their heart. The evening was a success.
10pm(or there abouts) after the clean up is done, and all the stuff is packed in my husbands car( he took the van to get the girls home) I go to start the car...and it is dead.No big deal, I'm feeling to good to let this bother me. Good thing the bishop is still there. With his van and Brother Mclaghclan's cables we get the car going.

Thursday - I still haven't figured out a babysitter for Friday. I talked to a few people at the RS party the night before, but they were not available. Then I got into the party and didn't think about it again until today. Once again I am exhausted. I have no motivation to get working on the few things that I have left to do for the craft sale. I try calling a few people to see if they would be able to help me out in the babysitting area. But I can't get a hold of anyone. I guess the worst case senerio is to take them with me for the first little bit until Sue can get there....that does not sound like fun. Then suddenly I have a brilliant thought. My friend Jakki, who live out in the middle of nowhere, mentioned that she was going to be in Milk River for her massage on Friday. Maybe she'll be done in time to come to my house and watch the girls until Sue is done work....I call her and ask. Perfect! Her massage is at 11:30am, I have to be at the Civic centre by about 1pm...this is going to work. Awesome, Jakki I love you! I call Sue and she is good to watch them at 4:30pm. Awesome, I love you Sue! Suddenly I have a boost of energy. All my stress is gone...and off I go to finish the few things that I wanted to have done for the craft show...not only that But I have the energy to clean the kitchen, cook supper, start decorating the house with Christmas stuff with the girls and after the kids are in bed I start on cresting a few jerseys for my husband.

Friday - I feel surprisingly relaxed. I finish the three jerseys for my husbands customers. Then do a few things around the house before I start getting ready for the craft show.
1:15pm - I head to the craft show...and all in all it was a success. A lot of what I sold was stuff I had made this past week...so that made my efforts worth it. It was a success...but I am glad...so very very glad that it is all over.

OK, after typing that all out...in away it doesn't seem so bad...hectic? yes...but I survived. Yes at times I felt like the world was against me....but...in the middle of his crazy week I had the opportunity to take a few hours and focus on Gratitude, to listen to others share their thoughts and experiences about gratitude. To share my thoughts and experiences...and then I issued a challenge to all the sisters in attendance. I had made a book for each of the titled the "Twelve day of Christmas". Each book had twelve pages, each page had twelve lines. The challenge was for each day of the Twelve days of Christmas to write twelve things that you are grateful for that day. This is something that I am going to do here on my blog(starting December 14).(I got the idea here) 

I challenge any of you who read my blog...and who have made it through this really long post...to do the same if you are so inclined. But for today...this is what I am grateful for this week

1. My mom, for letting my borrow her sewing machine, even though I know she had things she wanted to get started on this week.
2. My husband for being willing to make his work work around what I needed from him this week.
3. Sue, for helping me talk through the stress and help work through the problem...and being part of the solution.
4. Jakki, for being willing at the last moment to adjust what ever her schedule was to help out a friend in a bind.
5. for my sewing machine dying...because maybe I just need to learn to slow down and not try to do so much all of the time. I have since rethought my sewing list for this Christmas, and I am working on narrowing it down.....funny...the same thing happened last Christmas....almost exactly....you think I'd learn...maybe this time :)
6. for this coming Sunday!!! Good Friends are coming over for dinner. It is going to be a glorious time.