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
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:
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.
