Monday and Tuesday I tried to catch up on lots of small writing jobs I and pushed back some to do the Motley Fool first 1000 words. I edited the book for teachers on Seeddigging. I finished the second video script and worked on some web page stuff.
We tried a new web designer for the most recent tech start up company and he has had a slow learning curve. I empathize as I'm doing the same thing for Motley Fool, but he just hasn't seemed to be able to grasp the vision, have the technical expertise or the design eye that we need. We finally said, let's just finish this site and not use him again.
I empathized even more when Motley Fool came back on Wednesday and said essentially the same thing to me-- there's too much gap between what we need and where your writing stands now. Part of it is my fault as I chose keeping a deadline over taking the time to let the work sit and review it a few more times. But part is that this is a stretch for me in writing, and my writing probably isn't of the quality they need. They wanted to see more transitions... and I'm thinking, these transitions are clear to ME. Sigh. It hurt a bit. Made a little less painful by some severance money. But I also realized this kind of writing carries a lot of pressure and it felt good not to have that.
Tuesday Tom made a day trip down to Andy's to drop off 6 chicks and to pick up the trampoline. I was concerned about adequate food and water and heat for the trip, but we figured some temporary fixes and all seemed to go well. Kera had a place all nice and warm for them and they settled in well.
Aaron had texted me asking about the chicks and I remembered that he had been the boy who was so enamored with chickens in Kenya that one of the up-country mama's gave him a little rooster!
Wednesday... and the next few days.... I tried to get everything done so I'd be totally ready for the women's retreat. Tom printed off the programs for me, I collected napkins, easels, pictures, my ikabana vases, thank you notes, made name tags and numbers for the tables, write my talk (mostly an extended welcome and introduction of the keynote speaker) and reconfirm everything with the speakers and my counselors.
Tom was especially diligent in running every day this week. He heard that the place recommended coming in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. So he thought about taking the truck... but the three teens he was taking with him indicated some distaste for the cramped leg room in the back. So they volunteered their parent's car. It seated 8-- enough that they only had to drive one car to the Warrior Dash. So that was a good choice. Especially good since it meant I could drive the Toyota to West Plains for my event.
The chicks have been growing. First they fledged out little tail feathers, then their wing feathers started growing longer. Now they are getting little shoulder feathers above their wings and they are starting to fly more. Jonathan and Kristy had a "what were we thinking?" moment. They decided they really didn't need any more chicks, so Miranda got their lot of 6.
Saturday I left about 2:20 to drive to West Plains with all the stuff in the car. I met Caroline my first counselor at the church and we proceeded to cut up chicken and mozzarella cheese for the chicken wraps, and decorate for the next 5.5 hours. My secretary and her daughter showed up and did the lion's share of the decorating. She put up posters, set up tables and chairs, found tablecloths, and put up door signs. We arranged pictures of Christ in all of the class rooms and the chapel and put ikebana vases next to them. I can't figure out how it can take so long to bone and cut up chicken and cheese. But I guess for 110 people it just takes longer than for 6.
My secretary took tons of pictures of the decorations... but I think this one may be the only one that came out. Note the peacock feather in the ikebana arrangement.
We left about 8:30, checked into the hotel and then went to Subway for dinner. Then we crashed. Returned to church at 8am and still didn't get all the tomatoes and basil cut before I needed to leave and start the program. While we had some help from the elders quorum in the kitchen, Caroline stayed in and help out, so she missed the classes.
I really think we had a great program. The teachers were spiritual and insightful. We had some serious classes and one class where sisters role played ways women of power would act. There was lively interaction and lots of laughs in that class. I think I did a better job of planning, preparing, and then letting the Lord worry about it all coming out okay. The person responsible for a really lovely gift we were to give the sisters made an error and had to redo them and only got 65 done. I thought I'd be upset, but I just felt like it would all work out, and it seems that it did. The way they were handed out, those that didn't get them probably never knew others did. And two of the presenters also handed out very nice things to the sisters.
When I got home about 4pm, I checked on the chicks and chickens and cats, put food away... and mostly vegged for the rest of the day.
before the race
Tom left to go to the warrior dash about 3:30. They went straight to Miranda and Dan,s in Tulsa. Andy and Katie were there as well. The next morning they were off to their 11:15 time slot. Apparently there was not a lot of mud at the beginning of the race and most did pretty well. However, the last obstacle of the race was truly a mud pit! I'll try to post before and after pictures for a true vision of their exquisite muddiness. I talked with one of the young women who ran the race and she said Tom was the fastest one.
Today I substituted for the choir director during choir practice and led the music in Sacrament. We had good meetings. This was the first time I took, my Microsoft Surface-- a 12" table with typing pad-- to church to use instead of book scriptures. It seemed to work okay. I'm not sure if it was faster or slower switching between books in the scriptures.
It's a lovely day. The Japanese irises are blooming as are some of the roses. The grass is growing and the garden has spinach, lettuce, and peas taking off. Seeds we planted on Monday have yet to show their faces.
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