thistle epistles

Well, we had a delightful weekend with the Ratti family. . . they arrived on Friday night and left around midday today.  Davide is the Italian student also studying with David in the FCC seminary.  They have three girls ages seventeen, fifteen, and nine - which meant there were seven of us in our little house!  We have only one spare bedroom so we transformed the living room into a "sleeping room" each night with air mattresses and sleeping bags heaped from one end to the other!  Thankfully I felt like I have learned a lot from my mom over the years so that I was well prepared mentally for hosting and feeding a crowd.

I had eight people for Lord's Day dinner because Parthee (another student) joined us. . . thankfully it was a very easy slow cooker meal and everyone loved it.  I made a new recipe I had never tried before. . . a beef and mushroom ragout of some kind. . . with mashed potatoes and broccoli.  Yum.  Then we had nine people for supper when we got home from evening service - because Alasdair (another student) and Esther (his fiancee) who were in town from Inverness, came to visit!  Thankfully the "left-overs" were enough to feed a crowd. 

We managed to kill two toasters in the course of the day, though!  One toaster simply stopped working - I think it is old and worn-out - so we pulled out the "replacement" toaster which had been given to us by a friend whose parents didn't need it anymore because they had bought a brand-new one.  The "replacement" toaster responded to being plugged in by EXPLODING!  And that was the end of making toast for the evening.  What excitement.  I am now in the market for a toaster!

So anyway, we still have the Rattis' oldest daughter Giulia staying with us . . . for probably the rest of the week. . . which was unexpected. . . she was supposed to stay with friends, but the friend got sick, so at this point she is still with us and we will see how the week goes.  Our other guest arrives tonight - Raymond, another student, who is coming into town for the students' Evangelism Module this week and will be staying with us until Friday.  So my week is not about to get quieter, it is getting crazier!  I am hoping I have enough sanity to get through it. . .