Monday, Monday

Okay, a few Monday Mondays ago. ;-)

You know how I said September 5-7 I had been on a quilt retreat? Well, I’ll share a little more about that and about the day after. To give you an idea where my head was at and after the retreat... There were a couple women there that were... well... they don't think before they speak and I was in a "sensitive" mood, so even though I got a lot done and enjoyed chatting with a few people that I normally don't get the chance to, I was somewhat disappointed and frustrated by the whole experience. In addition, a missionary friend of mine was going to be in town from Oregon and had asked me a few weeks prior if I would open my home for an open house on Monday the 8th for people that couldn't come to the other one she was having over the weekend. So Sunday night after the retreat and all day at work Monday I'm still frustrated from this retreat, and then I'm going to open my home to people I don't even know. I'm grumpy, I'm tired, and why didn't I just say I couldn’t host? :-( Bill was sweet enough to clean up the house, but I still had some "decluttering" to do in the rooms I thought people might see. So knew I had to get home, run around getting things put away and neatened up and just plain detoxify my attitude so I wouldn't be a total wench when people arrived. I didn't know what time Karen would be there, but I knew that she had told people the open house was from 6:30 to 8:30. Two hours, and I'm not the focus. I can handle it. I hope. Bill had a meeting he was going to that night (which was okay), so when I got home at 5:15, I knew I had to scramble - just me and the kitty. ;-) The first thing I did when I got home was check the mail. There was an envelope in the box addressed to me (ME!) from my SIL Kathy that had a sticker on it that said "God Loves You." I can't tell you how much I needed that at that moment - God is so good!! I just cried (and I cried as I wrote this many days later, just telling the story) and thanked God so much for His timing and for a wonderful sister-in-law. ;-) I have no idea why she didn't send it to Bill and me together (except maybe because I specifically asked her for CDs of pictures from the family reunion in August).

Once Karen got there (with gifts! I was so surprised and blessed!) with the food and her presentation materials, we were visiting until other people arrived. I told her that I was a bit out of sorts from the weekend (sniping women and not enough sleep), and then I showed her the wonderful envelope I got in the mail that day that blessed me so much. I knew (or assumed I knew) what it was, so I hadn't opened it (I was running around most of the time before Karen got there anyway). She encouraged me to open it (she couldn't believe I hadn't), and there were the CDs and a nice long note written to me (to ME!). I didn't take the time to read it then, but read the note later (more than once). Again, I’m so grateful for Kathy, and how God has blessed me through her!

To finish the open house story, no one ended up coming to the open house... and that's how God wanted it. Karen and I had a great chat (which we hadn't done for a while, and not terribly often at that). She stayed late enough (9pm or so) that she was able to meet Bill, which she had really wanted to do, so that was very cool. I got to communicate with Karen on more of a personal level and learned more about her than her ministry newsletters gave (though she almost always throws in personal happenings in her life in addition to ministry updates). Even though I was pretty tired after she left, it was so glad that I hadn't told her "sorry, I can't" when she asked for me to open my home, and very glad no one else had shown up (for a couple reasons). I'm a lousy hostess - the most talent I have is setting tables and things like that - I'm not even bright enough to offer a guest a glass of water, and I was so thrilled to have Karen “all to myself”. I wish I had know at the outset how nice that evening would be (even though Karen had to ask for her own iced tea, hee hee)... but then I probably wouldn’t have been blessed so greatly by Karen, Kathy, and God as I was.

Blessings,
Kristin