Crock-Pot Recipes Anyone?

Sunday at church we stopped to say hello to Jorge, our seminarian. He was so friendly and seemingly unphased by last week’s fiasco that I told him we'd love to have him over again. He looked so eager to join us that I told him he could come over Monday if he had it free and he happily accepted.

I was looking forward to having him experience a bit more peace at my house.

The guest list began with Jorge and Paul, who is our regular Monday night adopted family member. Then I thought since my brother Aaron is in town, he might want to join us to get to know his brother seminarian a little better. Aaron accepted.

I was in my clean kitchen, my house picked up and vacuumed and dinner in the oven thinking how much more peaceful things were when Nelson text messaged me to say that Paul would be bringing his girlfriend. Okay, no problem. I threw in another roast just in case the small one I had ready wasn't enough and called Aaron to ask him to bring an extra chair.

There I was awaiting the guests, pulling out the roast, table beautifully set, Dawson happily eating in his highchair when I heard the first knock on the door. It was Jorge, with...our associate pastor. "Surprise!" they said.

So there we were the 10 of us around the table. Food enough for everyone and only one person sitting in our patio chair instead of a "real" one.

There were dirty dishes galore after the meal but everyone seemed full and happy. As they were leaving and I was thanking God that I put that second roast in, I heard Nelson say, "Good night! How about next Monday? You're always welcome here."

I think I'm going to look into some crock-pot cooking.