And getting caught in the rain

"A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." Matt. 16:4

In my church, we talk a lot about signs. There are some signs you should heed, like the signs of the times, for instance, but, generally speaking, we hew pretty true to Matthew here and say that you shouldn't look for signs and base your decisions on them or use them to determine your path. Because, well, that's wicked. And also adulterous, apparently.

So I'm not one to consider things that happen in my daily life as "signs." Which is certainly helpful on days like today, when, if I were a believer in signs, I would have assumed I was doomed. Instead, I am able to laugh (and blog) about it all after the fact. Tra la la la la, no wickedness here!

I decided, mostly last minute, to have a brunch today. I've been craving Easter brunch recipes, but we can't really have an Easter brunch because of our church schedule, so, instead, I decided that since today is semi-annual conference day for us and church doesn't begin until noon in our time zone, I would have a brunch today. (And also, I ordered some run-on sentences, apparently.) I called a few of our friends, found a few recipes I wanted to try, and spent a few days cleaning my terribly messy house. (When there's actual mud on your bathroom floor from your son's trips into the garden before bath time, can you still really call that messy? Oh, good!) I was even a planning genius and made most of the food last night, so there would be minimal prep today. And the chopping and assembling and baking last night went splendidly. Huzzah!

Cut to this morning. J woke up at 6 am, which was early but fine because we still had some cleaning and cooking to do. At precisely 6:04, the husband's work called. Pharmacist down, husband must go into work and (praypraypray) find a replacement or (nooooooo!) work the shift himself. So off he went, leaving J and me to "clean" together, which largely consisted of me mopping and him taking everything out of every cabinet and tracking through the mopping. But whatever, we shouldered on.

Then I inspected my monkey bread, which I had left out to rise the night before as instructed by numerous recipes. Only it hadn't risen at all and instead was a mound of hard, tiny dough balls and butter and sugar. No worries! Okay, many worries, because this was my sweet, so I dumped it out, grabbed some Pillsbury mini-cinnamon rolls, broke them up and tossed them in the same pan and put them in to bake immediately in case that didn't work, because who knew if it would?? (It did, only I forgot to turn them out of the pan soon enough, so lots stuck and were lost).

No problem. We still have plenty of time! I'll just go work on the fruit salad, very calmly. J will like that, since it involves grapes he can inha--I mean, eat. And, to save time I no longer have, I'll use these handy cans of Dole pineapple chunks! Except, what to my wondering eyes should appear when I popped open the first can but a thick, furry, green island of mold! In a can! From DOLE! And these were new cans, too, not even cans of questionable length of time in my cupboard (because Lord knows I've got those). And they were brand name cans, not even questionable store brand, knock off, severe and therefore suspect sale versions (which I also have in droves, of course).

By the time J refused to go down for a nap and the husband finally got a replacement and arrived home at 9:30 am, just a half hour before guests arrived, I was frazzled. Luckily, however, I don't believe in signs, and everything else went smoothly. The ham and spinach strata, a new recipe and the one thing I was actually worried about? Lovely and yummy. The fruit salad (with the other, much inspected can of pineapple) in the trifle bowl? Great. The pseudo monkey bread? One of the little girls wanted to make sure her mom brought some home with them. The veggie squares? A hit as usual. My friends brought pina-coladas, which were fancy and delicious, and chocolate muffins which were secretly made with wheat germ and blueberries and all sorts of healthiness and were great. There was lots of food and no one cried, including me. Success!