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Monday, September 26, 2005
the retreat
I'm glad I went, and not just because of the six delicious meals I didn't have to cook. Not even just because of the chocolate fountain:
That's melted dark chocolate (nothing can be perfect in this world, right?), and we had everything from Nutter Butters and Rice Krispie Treats to strawberries and cherries to dip in it. I won't show you pictures of the cheesecake table, or the dark chocolate cake with frosting apparently made of chocolate chips, or the fruit and cheese, because then you'd just be jealous.
No, I'm glad I went because I really did learn a lot, or at least I was in an environment where I could come up with a lot of great ideas on my own (since many of the things suggested by the professional organizer who was the speaker wouldn't quite mesh with our household -- although some will), about organization and how I could make my house more appealing. I do think that the mounting sense of discomfort -- you could even say total insanity -- about the state of my house has been God's way of working me up to a point where I was really open for ideas for this sort of thing. Also, the worship was beautiful, even though it did involve a bit too much of the "let's repeat this one line of this song until we're all mildly hypnotized" sort of thing (as Hank Hanegraaf might say, in his pompous and annoying "I've said this phrase so many times that it's totally meaningless to me and totally unintelligible to you" tone, maybe they were trying to put us in analteredstateofconsciousness).
That said, it wasn't like last year. There was no life-changing spiritual renewal going on. There was only the vaguest mention of anything that might lead people who didn't know Jesus to trust him and love him. The best memories I've taken away from this weekend, honestly, are:
- walking around the beautiful grounds and surrounding area with my SIL, taking pictures and talk-talk-talking.
- Making a new friend out of a recent acquaintance. I think. Time will tell.
- Coming home and hearing shrieks of joy at my appearance -- which is something that T gets every day, but only happens to me twice or three times a year.
- The idea that I can actually maybe make my house the way I want it to be.
- The worship singing. It really was nice.
And good thing for all those memories, because I came home and was instantly overwhelmed by the actual scope of the job of organizing this place. One job at a time, I know, but at that rate it'll take me till T retires to get all the jobs done. And of course they won't stay done, if past experience means anything. Still, I'm going to try. Hmm, I wonder how much that professional organizer would charge...
Comments
The professional organizer? Trust me, out of any sane person's budget. Friends of ours, who have more money than brains, hired one for their kitchen. $1000 later, she put everything in labeled clear Tupperwares. I swear, my MIL should go into the Professional Organizer business -- she and her Tupperwares and her FoodSaver could make a mint.
I'm glad the retreat went well. That chocolate fountain looks fabulous. I don't think I would be able to walk away from the thing, though.
I'd like to hear more about the worship singing -- my SIL got me turned on to contemporary Christian music, and I like a lot of it, but frankly a lot of it is pretty bad. There is some good stuff that I enjoy, but I'd like to hear about more new (to me) music. We actually have 2 Christian radio stations here, but honestly, I can't take some of the crud that is between the good songs.
Posted by: mary at September 26, 2005 12:08 PM
Oh how I miss that chocolate!!!! I usually do not like dark chocolate, but that was SOOOO SOOOO very good!!!! =)
Posted by: debi at September 26, 2005 12:09 PM
when I first saw the picture of the chocolate, it had the faces and now the faces are blurry. How did you do that?
Posted by: debi at September 26, 2005 01:31 PM
Debi, I blurred everything but the chocolate fountain in Paint Shop (I haven't got used to using Photoshop yet, although I have it and have used it for a couple of things) because it occurred to me that I'd no permission to post those ladies' faces on the Internet. :)
Posted by: Rachel at September 26, 2005 01:38 PM
P.S. I'm still working on the desk; I had to email T about some things of his I found (do you like it? do you wear -- er -- USE it?) and while I was on the email I went ahead and approved the comments that had come in.
Posted by: Rachel at September 26, 2005 01:39 PM
LOL Rachel! I miss our weekend!!
Posted by: debi at September 26, 2005 01:44 PM
I'm glad you had a good time, even if it wasn't astoundingly life-changing. :) Love you.
And, HELLO, a dark chocolate fountain IS PERFECT. Sniff.
Posted by: Kristen at September 26, 2005 05:27 PM
OH, dark chocolate. Oh, my. Oh dear. I MISSED THAT? Sniff Kristen, Sniff INDEED.
Posted by: jenn at September 26, 2005 07:59 PM
Someone tried to sell me a chocolate fountain for the house a couple of days ago. Like, I SO need one, you know?
Posted by: Carol at September 27, 2005 08:39 AM
