The Trials of a Busy Mom

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but still not a total loss

When we were put in as a Relief Society Presidency a little over one year ago, we tried to think of something fun to do for the sisters when they had a birthday. Send a card? Take over a small gift? Nice, but we wanted to do something different. Our decision was to host a birthday dessert once a month for everyone who had a birthday that month. They could come over to a member of the presidency’s house, have a nice dessert and a fun evening chatting with the other birthday guests. As the year finished out, we hadn’t gotten the turnout we had hoped for. Sometimes it was just one birthday guest who came. So we decided to tweak it a little bit and only do the birthday desserts every OTHER month. That way there would be 6-15 people invited instead of just 4-8 people.

I was assigned the March and April birthdays. “Great,” I thought. Two of my good friends have birthdays this month, and there are at least 12 birthday, so I was looking forward to a fun evening.

I cleaned my kitchen and family room. I ended up doing a whole kitchen tear apart this week as I started washing curtains, which led to cleaning blinds, which led to washing windows (the inside, at least), which led to cleaning walls and ceiling, which led to taking down all the pictures that were hung on the walls and cleaning and dusting them, then the endless sweeping and mopping of the floor, cleaning bird cages, etc. Finally I had everything put away and the kitchen and family room looked GREAT. The bathroom was clean, although with a clogged toilet it wasn’t going to be available, so I don’t know why I bothered, but it was still clean. (on a side note, my big strong man came back from his business trip last night and unclogged that stupid toilet that had been clogged since right after he left. I don’t know how he can get it done when I can’t, but I am eternally grateful. Love you, babe!)

I didn’t go to a huge amount of trouble making dessert, but I did have pound cake with strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream, and it made for a very pretty and fresh treat. After running the kids to soccer and baseball practice (and the last minute ultimate Frisbee game–ugh) I was ready for the guests.

7:30 turned into 7:45
then

Our Relief Society Second counselor came.
We chatted for a bit, hoping that a few of the ladies would come.
The Stake had planned an auxiliary training meeting on the same night,
which took away a few of the ladies,
and in truth, both the second counselor and I
should have been at the meeting, but
we decided to go ahead with the
desserts,
since we had sent out invitations and had it on the calendar for a while.
Soon it was 8:00,
then 8:15.
Saddened,
I called my kids down from my bedroom
where they were watching a movie on my bed
and invited them to eat the dessert.
*
*sigh*
*
Is it me? Am I a bad hostess? I seem to host a lot of things where No one comes. I hosted a way fun clothing party for myself and one of my friends, once. Seriously. Out of the 50 invites I sent out, one person came.

Well, at least it’s not a total loss. My house is clean (well, the main floor, at least) and if I can avoid feeding my children or letting them eat any food, do any homework, or even get the mail, I can keep it clean for my family party–who I KNOW will come– on Sunday. Yes, I know that the keeping it clean part is a dream, but at least it’s clean NOW, and I can look at the nice clean counters and be happy.

7 Comments

  1. Mom

    Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that’s so sad. I’m very sorry that no one came. Its amazing how motivated we can become if you think someone is coming to our house, right? I haven’t had any motivation like that for some time. But that’s OK. I don’t seem to have the energy for all that deep cleaning. I can’t wait to check it all out on Sunday.

  2. Kimberly Carter

    Not fun! I’m sorry that happened! Unfortunately, the same thing happened in our ward when our RS presidency did the birthday get-togethers. The only difference was that the RS presidency had asked one of the sisters in the ward who had a birthday that month to do the hosting. The presidency took care of the invites. When the February birthday get-together happened, I decided to go. There were three of us: the hostess, the RS secretary, and me. I was glad I went… still, I felt bad for the poor sister who had hosted the event. She did echo your sentiments, though: at least her house was clean.

  3. Mel

    So sorry. That’s not fun.

  4. Vern

    This makes me feel so bad because I KNOW how hard you are working! I would have come!

  5. Tess

    Drat. that’s lousy. though, now that I think about it – our ward does a b-day lunch meeting at Kneaders and I understand it is having the same problem w/ low attendance. In general, I think people are just too busy and can’t take on another ‘meeting’..even if it is a fun one.

    I bet the kiddos loved the special treat .. I know mine would have!

  6. Robin

    You are my favorite hostess of all…. :o)

  7. emily

    Oh, I’m sorry! That’s such a bummer. I’m sure it isn’t you – this has happened to everyone at least once. And I think church meetings and parties sometimes fall to the end of the priorities list – especially if guests aren’t sure they’ll know someone else attending.

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