The Best Saturday Ever

Sometimes my life is really hard.  Like when I have to haul water out of the river two miles away to cook dinner for my nine children.  Okay, that never happens.  But sometimes it's rough when Brandon is deployed on a dangerous mission for a year.  Never mind, not that either.  I really have a hard time choosing between paying off my mortgage and feeding my children.  Wait, that hasn't ever happened.

Okay, so my life is never really hard.

But sometimes is it really really not hard.  In fact, sometimes it's actually quite fabulous.  Like yesterday.

Friday was International Women's Day everywhere but in the U.S.  From what I've heard from friends, the level of observance varies.  Here in Baku, Brandon informed me, it's a cross between Valentine's Day and Mother's Day.  We had the day off, so we took the children on an outing to Besh Barmag.  It wasn't very woman-celebratory, but it was a really nice day.

That morning before we got up to face the children, however, Brandon told me to give our housekeeper a call and see if she could come Saturday morning because he was going to take me out to brunch.  Happy International Women's Day, indeed.

So yesterday morning Asli came to watch the children while Brandon took me out to the Four Seasons for brunch.

Brandon always makes fun of my obsession with breakfast, but who doesn't love breakfast?  It's the only time of the day where you can eat something made of butter, flour, and chocolate and call it a meal.  And then if you add in sausage (pork sausage), bacon, hash browns, and another danish or two, it's definitely the best part of the day.

After a long hard morning of lounging with the other posh clientele of the Four Seasons, we came home and found that Asli had fed everyone lunch and put the boys down for naps while the girls went upstairs for quiet time.  So I took a nap.  Because what else follows pain au chocolat better than a nice, warm, two-and-a-half hour nap?  Digestion is a serious matter, after all.

After crawling out of bed, I wandered upstairs and called my sister.  We chatted for an hour and a half before I had to go and get ready for my next activity: celebrating the Relief Society's birthday.

Most Relief Societies have a nice dinner and a program, but since ours consists of twelve ladies and our president is pregnant, we went out to dinner instead.  Since dinner was at six, I didn't have time to feed the children their own dinner, and left Brandon trying to convince Joseph that food was probably a good idea.  

We all had a wonderful time talking about almost everything other than the Relief Society, and had such a nice time that we didn't leave until around nine.  Which meant, of course, that all was quiet when I got home and flopped into bed, exhausted from a long, self-indulgent day.

So in review: brunch at the Four Seasons, followed by a nap, after which I talked to my sister for an hour and half, and ate dinner out with my friends.  It's a rough life, but somebody's got to live it, right?