Lead

This was one of those days.  I kept being surprised by the leading of the Holy Spirit, after the fact.  I didn't have any stupendous plans for the day, aside from a friend bringing her girls by to play and visit after they got out of school.  Yesterday was devoted to food.  We went strawberry picking and to the farm stand, and when we got home I made strawberry jam, froze strawberries, and made strawberry lemonade, strawberry shortcake, and strawberry salad!  (Yes, we got a lot of strawberries!)  I also sent some to my brother-in-law, because nothing is better than fresh-from-the-field berries, and I knew that they would never be that good again!  So, today, we still had some berries left.  I had also bought some rhubarb, so I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie, and rhubarb sauce.  I had to wash towels (2 loads), so I decided that since it was nice this morning, I would hang them on the clothesline.  The first load wasn't dry yet by the time the second load was out of the wash, so I put that load in the dryer.  A while later, I decided to get the first load off the line.  Some of them were not dry yet, so I'm not sure why I did this.  Then, I took the parings to the compost pile and gave the chickens some fresh water.  About one minute after I got back inside the house, I looked outside and it was RAINING!  Who knew?

Aside from the farm stand and the strawberry farm, I haven't gotten to the grocery store for a while, so I am kind of running on leftovers and whatever's in the pantry.  My friend arrived this afternoon with a box of Dunkin' Donuts (yum!) so we all had a snack.  At this point, my very social son asked if they would like to stay for dinner!  Well, my first thought was that we hadn't planned this, and maybe we could invite them sometime when I actually had FOOD in the house, but for some reason I said yes, why not.  I had a pound of spaghetti and a jar of sauce.  Just enough flour to make breadsticks (maybe a cup left over).  Lettuce and broccoli from the farm stand.  Carrots.  The last bit of watermelon.  Strawberries.  Mint in the garden.  About a quart of milk.  A little strawberry lemonade.  The youngest girl said "This is a really good supper!"  There was food left over.  They were going to go home and have macaroni and cheese.  They stayed for about four hours, and we had a great afternoon and evening.  Comfortable.  What a difference than if I had let my miserly perfectionism take over!

Letting the Spirit lead is hard to do, but some days it just happens when you least expect it.  I can see His hand in the events of the day, and I got through it without feeling overwhelmed, even when the unexpected happened.  I was able to be hospitable, which is a bit of a struggle for me at times.  I even offered a cup of tea when my friend arrived (something I have trouble remembering to do!)  For some reason, I already had the water boiling when they came.  The house was not perfectly clean, the dinner was store-brand spaghetti and sauce (and the spaghetti was stuck together when we tried to get it out of the bowl!), and I had to give Lily a bath immediately after supper because she managed to...um...let dinner go through her...and none of it mattered.  What a great day!