(Blossom3's cookie pizza, with her "helper", Blossom4)
Every other year, we host our families for a Fourth of July celebration. It's always a blast... well, except for that year that Pappy let little almost toddler Blossom3 have an entire can of Pepsi and I was up all night with a wired baby child. Maybe that wasn't so great. Over the years, the prep work was carefully finagled around nap times, nursing times and the general wrangling of smallish children. Party prep can be a long process that is sometimes just plain hard in the greatest first world sense.
After spending Tuesday supervising Blossom1 and her sewing project, we shifted into party prep mode. That means our "all hands on deck" policy went into effect. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if there's a time when it's not in effect. All the girlies gathered in the kitchen to work on brownies, cookie pizza and salad components. (We really don't just eat dessert on the Fourth, I promise.)
(Blossom2's Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle. Again, Blossom4 always manages to be nearby... probably as tasting staff)
The next morning, after choring, the Blossoms congregated in the kitchen again, laughing and taking instructions as we finished out the menu with many hands making work light. Blossom4 is our go-fer, as in go-fer-this, go-fer that, so she ran about the house, finding this and grabbing that, in between swiping tastes of goodies and peeling and chopping cucumbers. By 10 am, I sat down to check over my list and was astonished to find that all the food was ready... and we had been having fun... Yes, FUN. The Blossoms went out and decorated the porch with various and sundry "pretties" and helped to tie up all sorts of loose ends.
Blossom4 introduces Puffin to "the Gang."
"This is one way children really are a blessing," I thought.
What used to be hard and long and tricky was pleasant and fun and much quicker, but it came after years of making them do little things faithfully.
I'm thankful for the little glimmers of the harvest
that we get sometimes.
(Blossom4 is walking back up to the house with my sister and nephews. Sometimes the Littles get tired before the big kids do. Or maybe they just want more dessert before the big kids eat it all.
Also, I'm ever so thankful for friendly neighbor friends who let hot children cool off in their creek.)
Our Fourth party was a success. We managed to finish our picnic meal before the rain came. The downpour was so heavy that we all trooped inside, only to lose power for a while. Everyone lounged about on the porch or in the house, chatting and fellowshipping. Eventually, the power came back on, our party resumed its normal July cadence and we spent the afternoon soaking in our time together.
