Arrrgh!!!

I had HELP of every conceivable kind for the past five days and I consider myself VERY lucky!

My youngest sister brought her oldest daughter, and her daughter's boyfriend for a five day stay, to help my family while my knee is healing. If I gave you a line item list of all she did, you'd be reading for five days. The woman does not have a stop button!

Two of the days we ran errands. We returned books to the library and I picked up a book on disk (more about that later). We made it to two banks, the post office, the salon, the fabric store, the pharmacy, and to the mall, to get batteries put into a collection of watches. Nan remembered to pick up bread for dinner at Panera, one of the asiago baguettes that I love!

I had planned meals, and was going to go over that plan with her when she arrived. Dear Husband short circuited that plan a little bit when he found my grocery shopping list and brought every item home just before Nan arrived. He must have made six trips into the house with multiple bags of food. I'm sure my eyes got bigger with each trip. Thank you, Dear Husband, for doing all the grocery shopping.

Of course, I got hollered at because we spent so much on food. Nan cooked for a couple of days! *G* We had potato salad, chicken salad, green salad, summer salad, burgers, brats, and hot dogs, guacamole, chocolate dipped strawberries, brownies, bowls of strawberries, cantaloupe, deviled eggs, grilled chicken/Cobb salad, German potato salad, steaks on the grill and roasted asparagus. (Inhaling!) And that's the short list. No...we didn't do that all one night. That was just the variety of things she prepared, and why she was in the kitchen so much of her stay.

Sis and her family will be returning for a long weekend in a week. She asked me to plan simpler meals, things that are easier on the hips and thighs, and things that don't take so much time to prepare. She has a point. I'd rather spend my time talking with her than cooking. Elegante Mother wishes she could get a word in edgewise when we start talking, so you know that we are Olympic champions at this sport! *G*

Of course, there was more to their stay than all that food. Monday, Nan marshaled her troops and they blitzed the lawn and the gardens for me. She cut back all the oregano and lemon balm, and dug out a stand of weeds that was encroaching on the herb garden. I REALLY wish I had before and after pictures! She potted the last of the plants that we bought for the sidewalk container garden, and planted the buddleia, a shrub rose, and pots of phlox and petunias. We saw the itty bitty re-start on one of the morning glory plants, and she found a cage to go around it so it didn't become another bunny salad.

The Tall Lanky One (TLO) mowed until the walk-behind mower ran out of gas, and then set up hoses for the gardens. Nan asked if she could have some oregano to take home. I have an overabundance and joyfully agreed that she should take as much as she wanted. She potted up two pots of oregano. Sis ended her outdoor work by mowing more of the lawn until the rider mower ran out of gas, too.

Meanwhile, the Shorter Super Thin One (SSTO) was helping inside. She vacuumed the carpets and swept the hardwood and kitchen floors, watered the container garden, and a hanging bag of petunias in the driveway garden. She finished my ironing, and made the guest room bed, and started organizing some of their belongings which were to be packed in the car for the trip home.

While all the garden work was going on, I was washing. I got up early and stripped my bed down to the mattress. I ran the pillows through the drier, and washed all the bedding. I washed the sheets and towels our guests had used, and the mats and napkins from the table. I kept the washer going all morning. What's so amazing about that is that Nan must have done 20 loads of laundry in the five days she was here! We are either incredibly clean or incredibly dirty.

I know this entire post has been a laundry list, but I wanted you to have some idea of all the work my amazing sister accomplished while she was here. I forgot to tell you that she worked on lesson plans the evening of July 3rd, while the kids were off watching fireworks with Dear Husband. His boat is moored right under where they set off the fireworks each year, so they had a front row seat.

She also found time to make a return visit to the mall for a little shopping. AND she made the time to sit and chat with Elegante Mother in the very early mornings.

I know that I've called her "amazing." There have to be hundreds of other adjectives I could add to that. I envy her stamina, and her generosity with her time and talents. Most of all, I'm thankful that she's my sister.

Nan, thank you, so very much, for all you did for us this week. Words are just not enough.