I realized today that it has been over a week since my last
blog post. I’m not entirely sure how I
let that happen! I guess things have
just been a little busier than normal.
I’m back now, and promise to catch up on commenting and responding to
comments as soon as possible.
So here’s part of what I’ve been doing while I haven’t been
blogging:
At the beginning of the year my husband and I decided that
this year we would do better about having people over to our house for dinner,
games, snacks, movies, etc. We’re both
homebodies, so are much happier at home, and in this economy no one seems to be
able to go out and do much any way.
We vowed to keep the house cleaner (it’s not that we’re
slobs, it’s just that there’s a little bit of a difference between “clean” and
“company clean”, at least at out house), and invite more people over. We started off well and had a few people over
during the early part of year. Then
things just kind of fizzled. The house
wasn’t perfect, people’s schedules didn’t match up well, someone could only
come during the week which meant I wouldn’t be able to make an elaborate
dinner, etc, etc.
We talked about it again and realized those were all just
excuses, and not even very good ones. It
seemed that we were constantly talking about inviting people over, or talking
with other people about how we needed to get together, but never actually doing
it. We decided enough was enough. Actions speak louder than words.
So we invited some very good friends (they’re actually more
like family) over for dinner. Because
none of the five of us who are still working work exactly the same schedule, we
had to plan it about a month in advance to find an evening when everyone was
free. We ended up having them over to
dinner on a Wednesday night. Instead of
panicking that I’d have to make something relatively simple since I wouldn’t be
getting off until 5:00 and they were coming at 6:00, we just went with it, and
were glad we’d get to spend time with our friends.
I ended up making meatloaf, cheesy potato casserole,
macaroni and cheese, and green beans. I
put the meatloaf and casserole together the night before and my husband put
them in the oven before I came home. The
macaroni and cheese was homemade, but we had frozen it earlier and just had to
defrost it and warm it up. The green
beans were simple. My husband made a
delicious carrot cake since he was off that day.
It wasn’t a gourmet meal, but the food was good. At least everyone said it was. And the company was great; we were able to
sit around and talk for hours. We caught
up with our friends. It was just like
old times with them, when we all did a little better at making time to see each
other more often. It was heaven.
So what about you? Do
you invite people over for meals often?
Do you have any good ideas for helping things go smoothly? Any tips on how to keep the house “company
clean”?
