a nice relaxing weekend

I want so much from weekends!  

Chores and errands to do that I do not have time or energy for during the work week. Meetings, activities, church, family and community commitments.  And I really need some R&R.  hahahaha   I wearily look forward to the weekend while at work, but come weekend I wonder if I need to get back to work to get some rest.  Of course, it would help if I could learn to sleep through the night properly!

Friday we had Esther and Jared over. They arrived while Joseph and I were still at work.
They like to play Harry Potter with Benjamin. He has T shirts they use for robes, some nice wooden wands, and a 'silky' cloth that makes a nice invisibility cloak because you can see through it when wearing it. Benjamin says they follow Fluffy (aka Anna) while all of them are wearing the invisibility cloak, they practice spells, look in the Mirror of Erised, and have been known to try Quiddich (but that didn't go well). We have a couple of Harry Potter games they sometimes play. 
 
They were done with Harry Potter by the time Joseph and I got home. Esther was drawing. I don't know what Jared had been doing, but when Joseph arrived, he attached himself to Uncle Joe for a good while.

Benjamin made pizza – apparently the kids told him that it was Pizza Friday. He was going to let them each top their own pizza, but they were involved playing Wii with Joseph then and not to be interrupted. 
 
Playing the Wii took up much of the evening – Mario racing mostly.

Another fun thing - playing with the dog with the laser pointer.  Everyone enjoys it.

As it got to be bedtime, teeth were brushed and night time preparations made. Benjamin blew up the air mattress. Esther decided to sleep on the couch (the ends recline), Jared gleefully spread out his sleeping bag on the air mattress. I took the other end of the couch and the uncles (eventually) went to their own beds. We watched Wall-E. I thought the kids would fall asleep during the movie as we started it past their bedtime already. Silly Grandma. Even after the movie was over and I was dozing off, they were up playing with puppets, but not for long.

They woke up for a bit around 5am, then went back to sleep until a little after 6 when the bird's light went on and the morning sky was lightening.

The kids and Benjamin had already planned on pancakes – hopefully heart-shaped, but while we waited for the uncles to get up, they had Cheerio-like cereal. Later Benjamin made chocolate chip pancakes, but the hearts did not hold their shape. Still tasted good!
It wasn't really long before it was time to pack up so Ruth & Tom could pick up the kids and we all could go to CPR Saturday. 

It amazes me how much CPR instruction and techniques have been stream-lined since we first started going to CPR Saturdays when my kids were kids. Esther and Jared are too small, of course, to actually be able to do CPR, but the volunteers give them and extra manikin and they practice anyway. I think they learn quite a bit. They are incredibly well-behaved at these classes and even though officially children are not supposed to be there, they absolutely no problem at all and this is not Grandma prejudice talking. They spent most of CPR Saturday each with an aunt. 
 
Debi brought some delicious cupcakes for us all to enjoy after we earned our certificates. I was the class dunce. I missed one question. I don't think the others missed any. (No, the children didn't take the test.)

One the way home, the boys and I decided this was the 'someday' that we would go look for the 'castle' next to I-80 that we pass on the way out to Rocklin. One of them remembered that we had passed the Douglas exit shortly after seeing the castle, so we got off there and started hunting. Benjamin was looking on our little GPS for likely places. We wandered unsuccessfully until I was too concerned about 1) running out of gas, 2) needing a rest room, and 3) being hungry. We drove all the way to Costco Expo for gas. Joseph went to Starbucks to use their internet to try to locate the castle. We got Subway sandwiches to take back on the road. We wandered around what we thought might be the general vicinity (but wasn't qutie) a bit until we spotted a mailman. We stopped him and asked him if he delivered mail to a house that looks like a castle. After a quizzical moment, he realized what we meant, told us his wife and he had made the same hunt and gave us some pointers. Back to the freeway, off on Douglas again where I basically adopted the strategy of taking every right turn until we found it ourselves in front of tall white gates with a crown on top. The entrance to the castle! We couldn't see it very well and decided to look for the bridge behind the castle that we spotted from the freeway. Along the way, we found some other interesting park-like areas, crossed a foot bridge not far from the castle, but from which we could not really see it, and finally found the 'bridge' which was actually not a bridge, but the fence at the back of the castle property along a road. What a large piece of land the castle is on! Oh, the fantasies. Benjamin climbed on top of the car to try to get pictures.


Finally back at home we finished making chicken soup from bones from some of the chicken from last week's Kitchen Crew dinner. 
 
The boys decided to skip the Ward Square Dance Activity, but I went. The trouble with Square Dancing is that it is good to have both men and women dancers in equal numbers and multiples of 8 are required. Bishop was there sans ailing wife – just to be supportive of the activity, I guess. We partnered for a little bit. Then he returned to his wife's side and I tried dancing the man's part without great success. My partner wanted out and a late coming couple took our spot in the square. I was thinking about leaving early when I got a text reminding me that my grandchildren had forgotten their toothbrushes. I had noticed that and taken them to CPR Saturday, but forgot to give them to them. So I went home to get the toothbrushes and deliver them to my daughter. 
 
Saturday was almost over. I ate chicken soup and brownies. We had family prayer, scriptures, and Reading Club (Levin Thumps and the Gateway to Foo – we got a whole set of Levin Thumps books for Christmas)

Naturally, again, on the one day I could sleep in this week according to the schedule, I woke up early. When I gave up on sleeping, I decided on a nice shower followed by a soak in the tub – love water therapy! - and a book. Eventually, I had to get going because I have some major planning and organizing to do. My Sunday appropriate (I think) projects for today and many, many days not only Sundays for some time to come – Andrew's Home-coming and Benjamin's Eagle Court of Honor. Not to mention birthday season is beginning.

Andrew comes home from his mission the last of April. His homecoming has been complicated (as so many things in my life now, alas!) by family dynamics. There are people who would rather not be around other people and some who WILL not be around others except in fairly public situations. Andrew is a very loving soul who wants to include all his family. I get to figure it out and, once I get his OK, implement it. Right now I am looking at (public) airport welcoming followed by (public) picnic or buffet unless he comes in late in the evening. (Partial) family gathering meals that weekend. (Public) open house a week later. The Open House – at home? Or at the church? With the world greatest DJ or no music? Can Wojohowitz work in the house?

Benjamin (and I) chose to wait his Eagle Court of Honor until Andrew will be here. The next thing was to decide whether to have the Court of Honor when family would be gathering for a reunion later in May. That wasn't working out for the out of towners anyway, so I ditched that. 
 
Benjamin's Eagle Court of Honor will be 2pm Saturday, May 14 at the Effie Yeaw Nature Center amphitheater which he renovated for his Eagle Project. 
 
I need to write a zillion letters to various important people in hopes of getting letters from them to him. I need to request a flag to be flown over the US Capitol on the day of his Court of Honor. I need to plan the program and ask the participatants, invite everyone, make programs, plan refreshments. I think the refeshments will be the easy part. After considering doing a picnic for everyone or a party with refreshments, I think I am just going to have cupcakes from Sweet Petites (of course!) and maybe milk. I need to figure out what I need to do!

May is going to be a very busy month.

My “lazy” Sunday morning before afternoon church is about over. I need to go start dinner.

I hope I stay awake in church! I want to worship, learn, and enjoy good fellowship.