My Labor Day Sunday

So this is Labor Day weekend, a weekend when many people go away for the weekend. But it was Dick's weekend to work, to Labor, hahaha!

Both of my assistant worship leaders at church were going away this weekend, so I left home a little before 8 AM and made the trip down, getting there about 10 minutes before service time at 10:30. We obviously did not have a practice, but there wasn't much of a team anyway. No guitars or extra vocalists - just me and the two trumpet players.

I had a good time catching up with my dear friend Betty Martin after church. I think we must have talked for at least 45 minutes until I got a phone call from my sister Mary Ellen who was expecting me for lunch. Betty said, "Tell her it's my fault!"

I went to Mary Ellen's for lunch, delicious chicken corn noodle soup with chow chow. Now that's as Lancaster County as you can get, and I LOVE it!!

I took a nap at Mary Ellen's, then went to Lancaster City to pick up Destiny from Frank. He had had her for the weekend. I told her we could do something special before I took her home to Reading, and she decided she wanted to play in the park near her house in Reading. It's a beautiful park with a really fun playground. She had a great time.

This was the best part of her time at the park! So cute!!

From there we went to her mom's boyfriend's house where they were having a big family Labor Day gathering. It's a very warm, friendly, multi-generational family that I have come to know over the past two years, and they welcome me in like family whenever I drop Destiny off there. This time they insisted I stay for some food. Oh my!! Over the years that my life has intersected with the Puerto Rican culture, I have learned to love their food and the very smell of the house where the food has been cooked. Pork chops, rice and beans, chicken, fried plantains. I love it all.

It was 8 PM when I left there, and I knew I could have slept at Mary Ellen's for the night, but I just felt like going home to my own bed. I had had a nap, and I always have good music to listen to, so I hit the road for home. My bed felt great, and now this morning I'm home and can relax. Dick even has off work today, which is just wonderful.