Well I had been looking forward to today (Saturday) as a day for DH, DD, and me to get out and do something fun, go someplace, just drive around the island, whatever. BUT--- reality set in late this week and I realized I need to stay home instead and clean the house, go grocery shopping and cook.

No, it isn't that i'm behind on my household duties, but rather that DD and I are hostessing our Tea & Poetry club meeting here on Monday and I've got to get ready for it.

Now it seems like it wouldn't be a problem, right? Just clean and tidy the downstairs, make some little sandwiches and other bitesize morsels, and that's it. Well, no, for me, it has to be a major area of stress.

• I have the ettiquette lesson prepared (still need to print off everyone's copies.) The lesson is on "THANK YOUS".. formal, written thank you notes.
• I have the devotional prepared (still need to print off everyone's copies.) The devotional is on "FAITHFULNESS"... one of the fruits of the spirit we're learning this year.
• I need to go through our markers drawer to verify and select the specific type of markers we're able to use on our craft. (We're designing plates. Each person drawing on a kit paper that I'll then send in to the company. A plate will be made and then sent back to us.
• I have the menu decided upon, I need to make up the shopping list.
• I need to go grocery shopping.
• I need to make all the foods.

What's so hard about that stuff, you ask? Nothing! That's the easy stuff. The stuff I'm stressing over is:

• My house is so small. We only have three people living in our home. Our military housing is only a two bedroom, everyone else has multiple children, thus has a bigger house. My house seems dinky compared to theirs.
• Our schoolroom is our dining room. This means I'm going to have to move the keyboard, laptop, a stool, and a drawer unit out of the schoolroom to transform it into the dining room again to TRY to accomodate everyone.
• My kitchen table only has 4 chairs. There are 6 girls and 5 moms. The moms can (and typically do) eat in the living room, but I'm having to borrow chairs from one of the moms.
• I have 3 teacups, 2 giant coffee house mugs, and 6 regular coffee mugs. Coffee mugs! I wish I owned a giant set of teacups but I don't. And given that the Tea & Poetry club is nearly done for this year and we'll be moving later this year, I really don't want to go buy any new ones.. new or used. Besides, I truly don't have storage room for more cups of any kind!
• I have one 4-cup electric tea kettle. Hot water is rather important when serving tea. *sigh* So, again, I'm having to borrow from one of the moms.
• Small plates...yes, also an issue for me. I have a lovely set of new Corelle dishes (that I held out for this winter, waiting for the Navy Exchange to restock) but there's not enough for everyone. That means I'm going to have to ask my husband to go out in the garage and dig (yes dig) through our giant corner of yardsale stuff to find the old set of dishes. They're a floral stoneware set. I think there are a few small plates in that set too, not to mention a few more COFFEE mugs I need to be able to serve everyone!

And the list goes on. *sigh* What did I get myself into? Well, this is our second year with the club. The first year I'm not sure why we didn't end up hostessing. This year we definitely had to. I'm just not set up for this kind of activity. So now, my relaxing weekend with the family is ruined. I've got to ask my husband to help, when I'd really rather not as he's been working hard all week long. There's only so much my DD can do.

Guess I just need to suck it up and put a smile on. I know, in the end, no one attending will care what they're drinking out of or whatever, but I can't help but feel like a "dud" as a hostess without the fancy stuff everyone else in the club seems to have. Maybe if I splurge on a bouquet of flowers no one will notice.