lentil and bulgur soup

Yesterday was an interesting day. First thing in the morning I had a camp meeting. Tanya (our new camp leader) and I met and just talked about how we wanted camp to go, and discussed fund raising (the worst part of the whole thing) and how camp was last year and just had a good visit.
Then I went shopping.
Then came home to straighten up.
Then went to piano lessons, Hannah and Jenna are both doing so well, and it's wonderful to listen to them practicing.
When I got home I only had a short time to make dinner, and we had invited Sister Gupta over for FHE and dinner. She is a vegetarian and I wondered what to make. Finally I decided on this delicious soup, beet salad and rolls with apple dumplings for FHE treat. There is a lot of chopping and grating involved and I have been wanting a food pro for a really long time so I decided that this was a great time to get one. When we got home I got it out of the box and couldn't get it to work. Time was ticking by. I tried and tried and finally called Big in to help me. (he was outside staining the deck) He got it working and then it broke before we had even finished the beets :( I was bummed. And behind schedule. I broke out my knife and began using my mad chopping skillz when Lu came by and picked up the blade to the food pro and cut her finger. We had to stop and get her bandaged up (because someone always bleeds when you are running behind). J and H both stepped in to help get things ready and it wasn't too long before we had soup simmering, rolls baking, and salad ready to go.

We love to have friends over and this weekend was a particularly busy one for us, with the EQ social on Friday, and then on Sunday we had the missionaries and the Oakes over and then yesterday w/ Sister G. It was so interesting to me, normally we invite people who have kids around our kids ages and the kids play and run around and have a good time while the adults talk and eat. Last night the children asked me why we were inviting someone without kids. I told them she had a son who lived in Chicago and was living her by herself and I thought she'd enjoy joining us. They agreed. It was lovely to watch them. All of the kids sat at the table nicely and ate the food (which they normally would have complained about but I told them we were making something our guest would like and that really helped them). They talked and laughed with us and we had a quiet, civilized dinner. Lucy had prepared a very nice lesson and after dinner we came into the living room and sang and had the lesson. I was really impressed with how nicely they behaved and with how pleasant an evening we had. It gave me an opportunity to see them (my little ones) in a new light and to be very proud of their nice behavior.