My weekend has been wonderful so far.

My weekend has been wonderful so far.

Friday
It was really great to see Mama and Papa, and Pete, Anna, and Luke. Although the visit was extremely short and felt too short.

Saturday
I ended up sleeping in Saturday. I did not get out of the bed until after 8:00 AM and then lazily drank coffee and watched TV with Papa until a bit after 9:00 AM. A "quick" bath to wash up then repacked all my stuff. (I swear I make my stuff explode into a mess in no time.)
Shawn and I ended up driving into DC (instead of taking the metro). We parked in the all day parking across the bridge behind the Jefferson Memorial.
Honestly, I felt sick. I was exhausted, weak, dizzy and had a bad sinus head and face ache. I was emotional, grumpy and sensitive. Shawn and I both pressed on and did our best to focus on the beauty and fun. It worked. We had a great day and saw little bits of a whole lot.

Jefferson Memorial and Museum, Remember the Children at the Holocaust
Museum, a view of the Washington Memorial (they were out of daily tickets),
snack at the food stands, the mall, the Ronald Regan Building (and food court),
DC visitors center, National Aquarium*, lots of wonderful architecture, the
Natural History Museum, more wonderful architecture, lots of walking in sticky
weather, the botanical gardens, the Nation's Capital, more walking, statues, and
architecture, the Old Post Office Pavilion for dinner (NOT what it used to be -
NOT recommended to anyone else - but we were able to get food), a beautiful
dusk/evening walk back down toward the Jefferson Memorial, a purple sky was the
back drop to the Washington Memorial (I wish my camera could have caught the
beauty of it), an evening look at the Tidal Basin (beautiful), and the
Jefferson Memorial

Including Friday's dinner I took 488 pictures. I expect that over 150 of them will be deleted because they are blurry, out of focus, or have poor lighting. Digital Cameras are great for not having to worry about the bad pictures. I love mine. It takes really great super macro pictures. The only draw back is that I have not found a setting to take pictures in low light at a distance with good results. (If I increase the "shutter" speed too much, I can't hold the camera still enough and end up with a blurry speckled picture.)

We stayed in DC until after dark. (We had arrived in the memorial parking lot A at 11:00 AM we left the memorial parking lot A around 9:00 PM.) We were so tempted to stop at Mama and Papa's and stay the night, but pressed on to take care of my church family and Sunday church responsibilities. It was a long sleepy ride home. We made it home safe and sound around 12 midnight Saturday Night.

I hope to create some slide shows of our DC trip. When I do I will post them here.

*
******************************************
** DC TRIP SLIDE SHOW **

******************************************
*
Sunday
I was awakened too early by the cat who wanted her breakfast. Pepper is used to me getting up about 5:00 am. After fighting with her to wait I finally got up and started preparing quick bread (honey bran) for bread ministry. I was buried in exhaustion and therefore emotional. I had no ground coffee but managed to find a small bag of coffee beans. I dug out my grinder and ground some beans and made coffee in my French Press. Then it was time to get ready for church. Yes, I was running late (*sigh* as usual) again.

Worship Service was wonderful. God used Pastor Rick's message to speak directly to my emotional and mental situation. (Don't you love it when God does that?).
I came home worked on my calendar and took a nap. ahh...wonderful.
After my nap, although still feeling achy, tired, a bit dizzy and weak, I prepared a new recipe for family dinner. It sounded good and turned out to be more delicious than I had hoped for. Lentil and Brown Rice Tacos (Easy, Inexpensive Lentil Tacos) see here for recipe It was so good. I made a double recipe and served it with yellow corn tortilla chips and garnishes of salsa and shredded Cheddar cheese. YUM YUM YUM (and healthy).

Shawn and I cleaned up the dinner mess together. :-) And after that I watched a bit of silly TV in my favorite chair (the love seat) in my PJs, while Shawn read and Megan did homework and played on the computer (mine - hers is being repaired). (I must try at this point to explain something. There is an incredible sense of comfort in that moment. I am in my most comfortable place in my peaceful home with Shawn, next to me, content and peaceful in his wonderful Lazy Boy Chair, that he loves so, much reading, and Megan being her magnificent silly self within eye shot, happily (although there were grumbley moments about the slowness of my computer) taking care of her stuff. I was a safe, satisfied, content, and relaxed Mama surrounded by some of those I love the most and they were content and peaceful too. This is the GREATEST! I wish I had Justin's gift with words to adequately share this with you. ... ... ... *happy sigh*) I headed off to bed at my bedtime (without being prompted - yes Shawn and Megan were surprised that I did not require being herded to bed). I slept and rested well last night.

Monday (Labor Day ...ah... a day of rest from labor)
Got up this morning to feed the cat and went back to bed and did not get back up until after 8:00 AM. I finally feel like I am catching up on much needed rest. *Happy Deep Breath In and Out* I am grateful for this day of rest. I hope to make my slide shows and get a bit of housework done, but I also hope to spend it with my husband at my side.