To Be or not To Be?

That was the question.  Would it rain and spoil the scheduled church picnic on Sunday, or would the forecast be wrong? The rain had miraculously missed Saturday's Herb Festival, which we finally attended once it appeared it wasn't going to pour.

I  worked the rest of Saturday preparing picnic fare: a chocolate sheet cake, large potato salad, and home-fried chicken. Howard had cut up two fryers the night before, since he is the butcher in the family, having grown up in his dad's meat market/grocery store. (Some of the pieces seemed a little undefinable, though--he may have lost his touch since then.)

With such a lot of chicken, I got out my largest frying pan.  For some reason, it was taking forever for the grease to get hot enough.  Finally, it began to bubble, but when I put in the pieces, it would stop.  I was getting frustrated, turning and trying to brown the chicken.  Maybe there is something wrong with the burner eye, I thought, even pushing the pan to cover parts of the other burners.  That helped a  little.

When I replaced the huge skillet with two normal-size ones, the chicken got done and was presentable, at least. Howard  had mercy on me and cleaned up the mess. The rain began in earnest at bedtime,  and I heard it pelting down every time I woke up. Surely there would be no picnic, but every time I checked the internet church page, there was no cancellation.

We were  just ready to  load the food in the van and leave for church,  when I checked again.  The picnic had been cancelled! I was a little relieved.  On the way home from church, I called our son and grandson, who were glad to come over and help us eat the bounty! We had a wonderful afternoon of visiting and fellowship.

Later that evening, our son in Houston helped the grandkids Face-Time with us!  What a joy! 3-year-old Isaac explained that his new haircut was "broke" since the gel put in by the hairdresser had worn off!  He had to demonstrate a train set on the floor, making it go with a controller he held in his hand.  Big sister Anne-Marie treated us to "Jingle Bells" she performed on a recorder, then "Mary Had a Little Lamb" picked out on the piano.  Smiling, pajama-clad Maddie made a brief appearance, then Isaac re-appeared wearing a Spider-Man cape and mask, informing us that Spider-Man had "powers" in his hand.

All in all, it turned out "To Be" a very good day!