One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days where nothing goes as planned? Well, today was one of those days.

We slept over at Mel and Adam's house last night to hang out and pray together and then this morning we left right after breakfast so that we could come home and get some packing done. The plan was to have a relaxing day at home getting things done and then going to visit some friends later in the day. Yeah right!

As soon as we got home, our good friend calls us up and asks us if we're at home - in Turkey that means, "I'm on my way over!" So a few minutes later our friend and his son knock on our door and our friend says, "You guys look tired! So what are you doing today?" Pretty much all in the same sentence.

We invited him in for some coffee and then he asked us if we wanted to go on a picnic by the sea and if we could watch his son for two hours since he wife was working and he wanted to get the food ready. So our kids had fun playing noisily in the house while I got some laundry done and Joel took down the Christmas tree (yes, our Christmas tree was only up from November 1st until November 28th).

Then our friend called us to tell us the food was ready and we better hurry up and come over to their house so we could go. We got there and loaded up all the food in the trunk and then all 7 of us piled into their little car for the 10 minute drive to the sea. It was a beautiful day, the weather was in the 70s and we spread out our blanket under a tree and the kids ran off to play at the nearby park.

The guys started grilling the meat and my friend and I started preparing the salad. Well, basically she cut everything up and I watched because she cuts everything with a GINORMOUS knife and super fast while I sit by amazed and wonder if I live in Turkey long
enough if I'll be able to cut up things like her without chopping off a finger! Seriously, this girl can whip up a salad in about 2 minutes flat!

When the food was ready we all sat down and ate and it was delicious! I am really, really
going to miss Turkish food while we're gone! We had a lovely afternoon that included kite flying, a walk by the sea, playing at the park and, of course, the yummy food - all with great friends.

When it started getting dark, we loaded up all our stuff and headed for home. I was tired and
thinking that a quiet evening at home sounded pretty nice to me. Alas, it wasn't to be had! When we arrived at our friends' house they suggested we bake cookies together. There are no American style cookies in Turkey and their son really likes my chocolate chip cookies and they wanted to make some to take to his school this week. 

So it was off to our house to bake 9 dozen cookies. After the cookies were cooling on the counter and the kitchen was officially trashed, it was nearing dinner time and we were getting hungry. Now remember, we are leaving the country for 3 months or so and are trying to empty our fridge, so there weren't too many options for dinner. So our friends were introduced to quesadillas and refried beans and we also fried up some peppers and called it a meal!

Wow, what a day it was! I was completely exhausted physically and mentally (from speaking in Turkish all day) by the time our friends left at 9:30, but was so thankful for a fun day with dear friends. And God is ever so slowly teaching me to let go of my schedule and the way I like to do things and make more time for relationships. Sure, I could have got a ton of things accomplished today, but I am learning to see what is more important!

So enough about me, what did you do today? :)