Best Weekend Ever

We had the best weekend ever. The best!

My sister and her boyfriend came and stayed with us for an overnight. I wish they lived with us! We had so much fun.

Morgan and I took an aerial yoga class and are still laughing about it. I think we were the only class-takers who were doing it for a good laugh and we probably got the side-eye from our instructor a few times.

The boys golfed and Morgan and I swung on the porch swing and drank iced tea while the babies napped.

We ate s’mores around the fire pit—Eloise’s first!—and stayed up way too late talking and listening to the tree frogs.

Nick and I took an early morning bike ride to our town bakery to get a bag of cinnamon buns that are only baked on Sundays. We left Morgan and Joe to hold down the fort.

We broke out the bubble machine and ran around the backyard. (Finally, an element of parenting that has been automated for me! Best $15 I’ve ever spent.)

And we begged and pleaded with them never to leave, or at least to come back again as soon as they want another break from the city!

I haven’t always loved having a full house because chaos and commotion can tend to unravel me, but the busier, messier and more chaotic my daily life gets with two young children, the more that having guests seems like a drop in the bucket, I think, and I’m really starting to be in the “more the merrier” camp!

I used to always focus on the entertaining aspect of having guests. Making sure the meals were perfectly planned, beds were made in advance with coordinating towels and washcloths laid out, a pitcher of water and fresh flowers on the nightstand—that kind of thing. But I’m slowly learning that hospitality is so much more than all of that, and that actually, those things can detract from people feeling seen, heard, and welcomed if I’m in a tizzy preparing for their arrival.

Do you ever talk to someone and you can tell their mind is elsewhere? That’s me when I’m “entertaining.” But when I’m hosting, and focusing on the conversation, and truly enjoying our guests’ company, those other things either get taken care of ahead of time or they don’t, and sometimes I’ll even enlist the company to help out, which people like!

Just like living in an 100+ year old house quickly took care of a lot of my perfectionist tendencies with household things, having two babies has mellowed out my hosting style in the best way, I think. I’m sure it will always be a work in progress but I think I’m on the right track!

I hope you had a good weekend too!