21. Take Dancing Lessons with my Man

Photo by Penn Clark

Dancing. It's something that most Mennonites are less than good at.

I'll be completely upfront and honest and tell you this, I don't have the moves like Jagger.

But dancing is something that I want to learn. It looks like a lot of fun, and it certainly would come in handy to know at least a few dances (other than the chicken dance) for wedding receptions and other formal occasions... So, dancing was added to the list.

I wasn't exactly sure how or where this would happen.

Our local town grange offered free square dancing lessons during the month of September, but Herm was working several evenings per week in order to get ready for our trip to Portugal, which resulted in a conflict of schedules those three Wednesday nights.

I'm entering 'crunch time' with this list, and it looked like perhaps number 21. Take Dancing Lessons with my Man would not get crossed off.

But then I heard about the Autumn Barn Party my church was hosting just after we returned from our trip, and how we would have a caller there for square dancing! Hallelujah!

The only thing left to do was work on convincing my man that he would enjoy it too. :)

Thankfully I have two great pals, Kate and Lyndsi, who took care of this for me. I later found out they both text Herm and Lyndsi bribed him into it with a coffee and donut delivery if he took his wife to the dance.

So there we were, at the barn after church on Sunday night, sipping on cider and nibbling bits of apple pastries, as we were waiting for the dancing to be begin.

We started the night off with the Virginia Reel (see what it is here). The caller lined us up in two rows, gentlemen on one side, ladies on the other, and began to call out the moves as the music played and people clapped.  This is a high energy, lively dance. It was fairly easy to catch on, and so much fun.

We stayed for one more dance, before Carson started asking if he could go to bed. The little man will do all he can to fight nap time, but every evening, like clockwork, he will request to go to bed around 8:30-8:45. I would have loved to stay for the rest of the night, but I wasn't going to deny a little boy his bedtime.

I had fun, even with just two dances. And I was happy, this was finally crossed off.

P.S. Herm really enjoyed the night too, and next time, even though I'm sure he'd still accept a bribe of donuts and coffee, it wouldn't be necessary in order to get him there.