Procrastination Station

I often wonder about something.  Is skilled procrastination a gift?  I can practically hear every teacher and professor I’ve ever had screaming, “NO!” in heated unison, but I’m going with this anyway.  I’m really good at it.  I don’t mean that I’m really good at wasting time until I absolutely HAVE to do something… I mean I’m great at putting stuff together last minute.  In truth: I have taken time to plan and do a thorough job with things (like church lessons) and sometimes (most times) they go so much better when I do the majority of the planning the morning-of or the night before.

It’s a kind of art for me… last minuting.  Again, I can almost hear all of my teachers collectively pulling their hair out.  What an awful sound.  They must be glad to be rid of me and my absolutely hair-pulling ways.

This is what I’m driving at: I’m throwing a party tomorrow for my Beehive girls.  There’s a dance festival for the youth a few towns over, and the Beehives aren’t old enough to go.  They were feeling a little left out, and most of them would have TORE UP those dances, so after talking with them I decided to have a party with them while the youth were gone dancing.

I immediately thought to do a Spa Party (what could be more natural with girls?) but then remembered that one girl absolutely refuses to take her shoes off on account of odor insecurities.  So I threw that out the window.  And then I remembered an article I had seen on Country Living’s Website about having a Prairie Girl Party.  They did a great job.  Before I go on, I must say: I can not plan and carry out parties.  I have a huge (we’re talking Berlin Wall Sized) mental block when it comes to party planning.  I just don’t GET how to do it.  Even though Country Living’s Farm Chicks laid out the plans step-by-step, I was still extremely hesitant.  I have my reasons.
#1) I don’t own a single pair of boots. Not that that’s very important, but it SEEMS like it.

#2) I can’t set a table beautifully if my life depended on it.

#3) Lots of details and planning (and spending $ on said details) stresses me out more than anything I know. Except maybe impending labor when I’m pregnant. Which I’m not.

#4) I’m not, like, all trendy. I type that in all earnest.

My poor Beehives. They’re getting a variation on the The Prairie Girl Party. We’re going to meet at my house (instead of a field -despite the abundance of fields around… it’s June. it’s Arizona. it’s HOT). And I’m calling it A Country Girl Party instead.
We’re going to sit on hay bales (you don’t get more country than having your rear end “massaged” by hay, truuuust me) in my front yard and plant flowers in pots, label the flowers with steel stamped spoons… something like

 

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While we’re doing that, we’re going to take turns shaking cream in a jar to make butter. Then we’re going to eat a lunch (I’m going to put their lunches in their terra-cotta pots) of sandwiches, an apple, chocolate dipped strawberries, and brownies in a tiny mason jar.


And IBC Rootbeer -the kind in bottles. I’m not awesome enough to brew my own tea to put in vintage glass bottles and recork. Because
#1) how do you go about brewing that much tea?
#2) where would I find that many vintage bottles?
#3) who sells corks that fit vintage bottles?

Anyway, after lunch we’re coming inside to learn how to make freezer strawberry jam and homemade bread. When they do this, it passes off one of their Personal Progress goals.
I made them these:
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To wear while they make bread. I stayed up until 2 AM last night finishing them (then I slept in until 8:30 and had a disturbingly vivid dream that I was a Ghostbuster). Why do I do this to myself? Why didn’t I have them done last week -or TWO weeks ago when I bought the fabric? Heaven only knows.
Today, I’m cleaning the house, baking the brownies, making some bread ahead of time, dipping strawberries in chocolate, printing out instructions for everything I have planned so I don’t get it wrong with seven 12 year old girls underfoot… It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow. I’m nervous about messing up a party that could have been SO much better if someone else had been in charge. I’m also nervous about making sure everything is prepped and ready.
But since I’m doing it last minute, I should be fine. That’s how it goes down around here. You can send sympathy notes to my husband if you like.

Comments

  1. Jamie Burt says:

    Good luck!! It sounds like you are an awesome leader! I was one of those beehives last time when they did the dance festival that was just not quite old enough. It sure was a bummer and I wish there would have been a fun “Country Girl Party” for me to go to!

    • storylady says:

      Jami! Just come over! Seriously. If your husband is sleeping and the kids and you need to get out and play, come on over! Then you can go home with some homemade jam. :)

  2. Steve-the brother says:

    I too have been blessed with that gift! I put off the designing/cinstructing of a catapult in Mr. Hunt’s physics class until the day of, put it all together the lunch-hour before, and it performed outstandingly more accurately than any other catapult in class. Some students knew how much time I had (or hadn’t) spent on it, and were pretty upset that I earned the A. My response: “You had just as much opportunity for procrastination as I did. You just chose to work for a few weeks in advance instead.”
    I think we get it from Dad.

    • storylady says:

      That’s hilarious! I laughed so hard when I read this. Glad I’m not the only one. And I agree that we get it from Dad, I just didn’t want to blog that part buhcuz Mom reads my blog to Dad.

  3. That sounds like so much fun! I am going to agree that procrastinating is a gift. Besides, without it, a lot of smaller tasks would go undone. So procrastinate on! (I think I’m going to make that my new motto.)

    • storylady says:

      Let’s make shirts, shall we? Motivational Speakers the world ’round will want to strangle us.

  4. We love your Country Girl Party! The pictures are darling and it looks like your girls had a really good time. Lovin’ the simple life and you can’t get much simpler than hay bales and shaking butter. Awesome!

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