Colonial Week and Tender Mercies

It was Colonial Week at school for Seth this week. They had all sorts of fun activities culminating with a sort of celebration on Friday that included dressing up in colonial style garb, tasting colonial food and colonial activities such as dancing, cross-stitching, making a pomander, dipping candles, writing with a quill, etc. Earlier in the week the boys made powdered wigs and the girls made mob caps. Here's Seth with his wig:

 

I was excited to find his vest at the thrift store on Thursday. Isn't it perfect? We had a lot of fun figuring out his costume. I also volunteered to bring some foods for the children to sample. The teacher provided recipes from three different taverns in Williamsburg. I made almond macaroons, oyster fritters with dipping sauce and cream of peanut soup. I thought they all sounded kind of weird but actually they weren't half bad. We really like the macaroons and the peanut soup was surprisingly delicious. Unfortunately the kids didn't get to sample it since all five quarts spilled onto the floor of my van when I hit a pot hole on the way to the school. The oyster fritters weren't bad but weren't very popular among the kids (not much of a surprise there). There was also a display table with colonial type items that different parents had brought in so the kids could see the kinds of things the colonists would have had in there homes. I brought a bunch of stuff from home for that too.

I was fortunate to have a friend offer to baby-sit for me so I could go enjoy helping out in the classroom a little bit. It was very kind of her since I know she has her hands full with a son Nate's age and twin boys just older than Daniel. I was also fortunate to have another friend help me out. We both arrived at the school at the same time. She was picking up her little girl who has been sick and I was trying to clean up the peanut soup mess. I decided to leave it and come back to it after I helped out in Seth's classroom as I was already a little late. When I came out to the van afterwards thinking I would have to finish cleaning it up she had already done most of the work for me. All my soggy paper towels had been thrown away and the rest of the soup had been pretty much wiped up. I talked to her later and she had gone home and came back with more paper towels so she could finish the job. And she did it with 3 little girls in tow. What an amazing friend! Instead of feeling sad about the whole thing I ended up feeling grateful to a loving Heavenly Father for blessing my life with such a sweet friend.  It is truly a tender mercy of the Lord to have good friends in my life--near and far--who help to make my days easier and the dark times brighter.  Even if my car does smell like peanut butter.