It's September and you know it (clap your hands)

Next thing you know it's a new month.

Here's what's new:

There was Labor Day Weekend, which included some laboring (giving two cats a flea bath should get a new place in the dictionary under the word labor) sprinkled with some weekend fun and an afternoon of lounging on the back patio thrown in, just for good measure.

Sunday after church the stars aligned and my three daughters approached me separately asking if they could

1) bake a cake

(to celebrate the cats turning 6, but cake is cake, right?)

2) make biscuits

(how do you EVER say no to biscuits?), and

3) cook dinner

BAM! Add leftover fruit salad and Sunday dinner is born.  No labor pains.  I knew that giving birth to daughters three consecutive times would provide days like this.  Being released as Relief Society President has coincided nicely with my girls' sudden need to explore their domestic sides.  I'm embracing the 'rest' part of 'Day of rest.'  Thus the afternoon of patio lounging.  While reclined I watched, mesmerized, a cluster of very large dragonflies swooping over the chimney for almost an hour, and even lingered until dusk, hoping to catch a few bats at work.  Every Sunday should include some nature appreciation, don'tcha think?

Monday night we had our Family Home Evening, which went very well on the scale of family happiness and solidarity ...until we got to the activity portion of the night (a group game of pool) and a family member or two nearly had their heads taken off by an errant pool cue.  Maybe the stick wasn't literally errant--just a few attitudes needed adjustment once things got competitive.  Competition cancels out meekness and humility chez nous, and, well, without those, the whole family unity thing just doesn't go well.  Then we ate cake.  We were going to go out for ice cream, being the last official weekend of summer and all, but since a few of us were no longer on speaking terms, we gave great thanks for leftover cake.

After more than two decades of striving for family home evening perfection, I've learned to hold on to the scattered moments of success and let go of those times when we turn to the dark side.  We can usually laugh about it the next day.

Oh, and here's the newest house guest:

The parents have flown to Colorado and the step-sister is back in town.