Beverage stations...

The second thing that made SBS-hostessing a breeze was setting up regular beverage stations.

For the high school SBS, we narrowed beverage choices to two: water and lemonade. What freed up the yellow tub in the first place was the fact that instead of putting ice in individual cups, we filled two beverage dispensers halfway each with ice. Then we filled them the rest of the way with the beverage. In a creative moment, I took some adhesive-backed foam letters and stuck them to dispensers. I wasn't sure if the letters would come off when we washed them (we hand-wash them), but after six weeks, they're still stuck tight.

Ladies' SBS means COFFEE!!! I love me some good coffee-drinking women! We had the same water and lemonade pitchers, although a couple of times I did put out mango peach tea in the third dispenser. But the highlight of social time at a ladies' SBS is drinking coffee with friends.

Coffee featured labels. Caff was more popular, so it stayed in the pot, since most nights I ended up making more. Decaff went in a carafe

We went to disposable cups after washing 12 coffee cups the first night. :) Four kinds of sweetener. Five kinds of creamer that rotated.

There's nothing in this picture that isn't in the others. Coffee corners just make me happy.

Bible study in a tub...

Twenty years ago that would have meant I was sitting in my bathtub with a board stretched from edge to edge, reading and writing. I have three kids now. I can't remember the last time I actually sat down in a tub.

This Bible study in a tub is about a really cool hostessing discovery I stumbled on this summer.

My sweet, amazing, supportive family agreed to re-arrange life as we know it (read: not trash the house on a routine basis) for a couple of months this summer so that we could host two Bible studies in our home. The high school summer Bible study meets on Monday evenings, and the ladies' SBS meets on Wednesday nights. I thought it would be a little chaotic, but in all honesty it is a ton of fun AND the house has stayed relatively clean all week (because the degree to which we trash it Thursday - Sunday directly correlates with the amount of work we do in the big Monday cleaning).

One thing that made set-up a breeze was the Bible study tub. Before the first meeting I was shopping at Walmart and picked up a bright yellow ice tub. I was going to use it for ice, but the plan changed. It was packed with paper products and coffee supplies, and I didn't have time to find a place for everything, so I just let them there. You have to admit that some of our better ideas are "accidental" discoveries.

At 6 p.m. before the guests arrived, I'd grab the tub and put out the supplies. The tub stayed on the corner of the counter so that if anyone needed additional cups/napkins/spoons/plates/Truvia, it was right there. When everyone left, I'd repack the tub, and it'd stay in storage until 6 p.m. on the next SBS night.

Here's a quick run-down of the Bible study in a tub:

The Tub - fully loaded with...


sweeteners (because so many people like so many different things),


forks, spoons, plates, cups, napkins,


name tags,


and beverage labels.

The other thing that made set-up a breeze was the beverage stations. More on those tomorrow...