and the quiet settles in

For the last two nights, I've had about three hours of sleep a night. Today was a pretty full day and I wearily typed out my to-do list in the wee hours of this morning. I have to say, though, that today was totally worth the effort.

After some obligations this morning, this afternoon was all about cleaning up and making food. I cleaned mirrors and toilets (what fun!) and took down all of our hanging laundry. Then, I started in on the food. I did learn a couple of things from my food today.

I thought that tripling the recipe for the eight-serving cake would yield twenty-four cupcakes. Um, no. I ended up with thirty-six cupcakes and enough batter to make one more. (There was no way I was going to make a single cupcake, so that last batter went down the drain.)

It's not a good idea to cook twelve cups of macaroni at once. The pasta went from not done to whoa! over-done in what seemed like a moment. (This could also have been due to me also making thirty-six cupcakes in batches of twelve and putting together the cheese sauce for the pasta at the same time I was cooking the pasta. Yeah.) So, yes, we had somewhat gloopy macaroni and cheese, but so be it.

Inviting people over fills me with anxiety. Inviting enough people over that I know we will run out of dishes by the end of the night fills me with a lot of anxiety and then some more. However, this very last-minute yet long overdue gathering today leaves me feeling happy. Happy to have the friends I have. Happy for handmade cards. Happy that a friend I've known almost all my life was able to come. Happy that she brought her daughter and this girl and Pic can further develop a friendship that might last decades and more. Happy that Pic has so many people in her life, outside of this little family, who love her so.