Peaches and Pears, Wings and My Guitar

It's Sunday night and I"m reflecting on the weekend past. It was a good weekend. Surprisingly, Steve and I were allowed to sleep in on Saturday. Our boys decided to watch tv, so Steve crawled back into bed for another hour and a half of sleep. It was lovely! We awakened when my friend called to push back our arranged meeting time. That worked perfectly for me. After a slow waking, I headed out.

There is a dear older lady who attends my church. She's the only one who still lives on the farm, I think the only one who grew up Mennonite. By that I mean not quite old order, but close. She lives in the farmhouse where her husband was born and now her grandchildren come to play. It's a beautiful stone house, perched overlooking fields of soybeans and a small pond. I love their farm! Rachel(not her real name) invited me out to can peaches. She's been canning since before she can remember, while I'm stumbling over learning to preserve. Rachel is patient with me. I like learning from her. So together we peeled our peaches, stuffed the jars and then processed them. We had more jars than fruit, so we drove down to a little country market for some pears. It was a companionable time of working, talking and drinking tea. Rachel's house was so quiet and peaceful, it was a haven for me. I came away tired, but inwardly refreshed. Being productive feels good!

Today was harder. Right now, Sundays tend to be. My wonderful husband is finding them hard too. The strain is wearing on us both. He's gone the next couple of days on a retreat, so at the last minute, I called my parents to babysit. They agreed and we went out for wings.

Wings are among my favourite food. There is just something about a nice wing with just the right amount of sauce and bite. My favourite is medium and I'd be happy just eating that. But variety is the spice of life and we did go to a place with 101 different flavours. I can't make decisions right now, so Steve chose. He chose "Jamaican Me Crazy", a combination of jamaican jerk and pineapple curry. It was...interesting. Don't get me wrong, they were tasty, just not my favourite. But still it was good. We ate, talked and rested. We came back feeling a lot less stressed.

Dad babysat for me and whenever he babysits, he pulls out my guitar. Dad plays beautifully, but he doesn't play often anymore. However, he likes my guitar. Since I haven't played it since my last bout of depression, I'm glad that he gives it some love and attention. He was still playing when I got home. I've been wanting to start playing again, so the sight of my guitar actually out was good motivation. After he left, I got my guitar back out and played a bit. I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually remember the chords. I played much better than I expected. It was very exciting. Granted, I couldn't play for long because I don't have callouses any more, but still! I can play! I"m not horrible after almost two years away!

Monday and Tuesday are looking rather crazy at this point. I'm not sure what's going to happen. But I'm thankful for the good things of this weekend. Now to sleep well and awake refreshed so I will have lots of grace, gentleness and patience with my munchkins tomorrow. :)