EEking it in in under 4 minutes before midnight. [Edit: Nope, missed again...by the time I sorted through all the pics and posted, we've slipped into Saturday]
From not too terribly far back (Spring 2010).
Our family observes Torah, and during the last Passover season, we decided to invite all our fellow observers in our congregation out for a picnic. DH (the cowboy in the pic) generously supplied all the meat (lamb kabobs and kufta!) and we asked everyone to bring a little side dish.
The day was lovely, great weather, not crowded at the park (until we arrived). I couldn’t say how many people showed, but the above picture is only a sliver of the folks who participated. We had teens playing football, little ones on swings, babies being passed back and forth, and a lot of gabbing adults.
Personally, I have a huge shy streak and not an underdeveloped low self-esteem issue that I battle constantly. People tell me that they are surprised to hear this…and that makes me feel good, because I really do work at squelching those negative thought processes. Anyway, crowds and putting myself out there via invitations is not something that I normally do (yes, I was the kid that invited tons of people to her first – and only – teen birthday party and only one person showed…and that person let everyone else know how l.a.m.e. it was), yet it is something I often wish to offer. I think secretly I’d love to throw dinner parties all the time and fellowship.
That’s me in the pic above, with the hat.
And that is what that one day felt like…fellowship with a variety of people that I’ve put myself out there to and have pretty much been warmly received. It was a slow start some years ago, and a lot of that I have to take ownership for…but I pretty much was on a little happy cloud that day, seeing everything work out…and we were closing the very last of the chapter on our legal battle on our son’s behalf (medical insurance) and I remember stepping back for just a moment thinking once I get this suspected perimenopause stuff (new to me) down pat, that we’d be sailing calm waters from here on out.
I think it was the last happy day I have had this year. It was enjoyable going through the pics, trying to decide which ones best represented the day.
I could almost smell the food cooking.
Totally loving the football photo. Great action shot!