Soup Party 2009

This past Saturday, we held our Annual Soup Party, with many of the relatives from my side of the family, some families from our church, and a few old friends (oldies, but goodies!). Our children look forward to our soup parties more than just about any other day of the year! They absolutely love them, and what's not to love? Friends (and their children!) bringing loads and loads of food to share- definitely a good thing in my book.

The weather not only cooperated (I was hoping and praying for some degrees above freezing, and none of that fluffy white stuff that makes this The Frozen Tundra), but it kinda got carried away, with sun and temps in the low 60s.

The children not only got to play outside, but most of them even ate their soup outside. Yep, you read right, a picnic, in November, in Minnesota. Will wonders never cease?!

We've done this 6, or 7, or 8 times, I'd have to check the archives to tell for sure... and the only other time we've ended up with a 60 plus degree day, was also the year we had our biggest crowd, around 75 people, with a good 30 or so at any one time (we have it sort of like an 'open house' and people come and go throughout the afternoon and evening...) and 8-12 crock pots going, plus a pot or two on the stove top, including a pot of hot apple cider (yummo!). That got hot. I opened windows, and soon realized that we actually needed to close the windows, and turn on the air conditioner!! Yeah, that was warm. This year was warm, but not so bad...

We had some yummy soups- two of them even got left here for my family to finish the leftovers, bonus! (Thanks!) I made a soup that has become a family favorite ever since I first made it after seeing it recommended in blog land somewhere... It's the Salsa Chicken Black Bean Soup from the Crock Pot 365 blog, which is a gr-r-r-reat resource for crock pot recipes if you're ever in need of ideas and/or crock pot inspiration.

We ended this year's Party early, as it happened to fall on the weekend of our church's fall Revival meetings. Our flesh may have been bummed at the idea of cutting the festivities short this year, but our spirits were so encouraged (and nourished!) by what we heard on Saturday night, and with more on Sunday morning and night, it was so definitely worth it. I have so many thoughts, stirred up by those messages, swirling around in my head, just waiting for some more time to process... It's all good. He is so good.

A big weekend, with bedtimes later than usual, followed by a Monday night, with a soccer awards ceremony for The Teenager, and more getting home late, is making for a relatively slow start to this week. Here it is, Tuesday already, and time for a 4-H afternoon!

Speaking of 4-H, it's time to start getting ready to head out...