This morning, when I woke up, I surely did not anticipate all that this day would hold!

We had been out to the farm of Sr. Rebecca’s niece yesterday, and she had given us potatoes, tomatoes, onions, tomato sauces (salsa and pasta), and plums – lots of them!

It was nice to get out of town, despite the fact that we had trouble finding the farm.

I figured that today would be a nice Monday, with a few little projects before coming to the front desk for my 3:30-10 p.m. receptionist shift, but, boy, had I underestimated how long plum processing takes!

We had about four grocery bags of sweet, JUICY, plums. Since we now have a Ninja blender for taking care of such things, I thought we would just take the pits out and puree the plums before cooking them into jam or desserts. I had a few helpers to aid me in the process, but could certainly have used more.

The night shift, who clean in the activity room, should feel that their efforts are worthwhile tonight. Often, when cutting into the little plums, juice would squirt out in any direction. In fact, one of the nearby vinyl-covered chairs had definite evidence of the “plum pitting party.”

I did clean up as best I could with the time I had, but, there are only so many hours in a day (a fact which I acutely felt this afternoon).

With my work at the front desk, efforts to finalize a new brochure, posting a job opening, and changing the altar cloth, this day was PLUM FULL!

At some point this afternoon, I remembered that I also had tomorrow morning’s Bible study to prepare for as well. After saying a quick prayer for guidance in this, it dawned on me that I could play our Biblical Pursuit board game with the residents, saving myself the effort of another task of preparing a lesson. I am grateful for the “inspiration.”

Sr. Christina M. Neumann, OSF