The last three days have been spectacular.  I can’t even tell you how wonderful it was.  Saturday morning Paul took all three girls and left for Long Island.  They got home last night (Monday night) around 10 pm.  Three days of no whining, fighting, poopie diapers, cleaning up after small people and being woken up multiple times in the night.  It was absolute luxury.

Sunday Paul went to his brother’s bachelor party (the reason for the trip) and the girls got to spend time with their grandparents and auntie.  We may need to do this more often!  I loved being home and relaxing and having quality craft time.  I was thinking that the weekend of the actual wedding would be another opportunity for me (Oona’s not invited to the wedding, so I can’t go.  But hey, if he doesn’t want his niece at his wedding, that’s his deal).  But I think instead of sticking around the house Oona and I (and Maddie) will head out to see my grandmother up near Buffalo.  It’s been awhile since I’ve gotten out there and it will be far less stressful with only one kid and not all three.

But back to this weekend.  I watched a whole marathon of Destination Truth on SyFy and got half of a sweater for Neve knit.  HALF.  That’s huge.  I got the chicken coop all mucked out and cleaned up (of course they filled it back up with poop right away.  Oh well).  I pulled most of the weeds out of the front garden and began cleaning off the porch.  I got all of the wood floors steam cleaned.  I pieced out fabric for a quilt.  I watched an entire Ghost Hunters marathon followed by a Ghost Whisperer marathon on SyFy (I think they were going for a theme or something).  I ate cake and ice cream and peanut butter cups.  I read half of The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco and lounged in bed until 9:30 every morning (after the best sleep I’ve had in ages).  I got no end of kitty snuggles.  I made a sweet potato and chicken risotto for dinner and didn’t have to hear any whining about it.  I marveled at the fact that I would clean up a room and it stayed that way. I didn’t have to hear Dora, Kai-Lan or that horrible Fresh Beat Band at all.

I did have two somewhat freaky moments while out weeding.  Maddie and I had been talking (I don’t remember why, either) about how we don’t really like praying mantises.  I mean, they’re cool, they’re beneficial, and I like having them in my garden and all, but they kind of freak me out.  Not in a spider sort of way, just a “hey I don’t really feel comfortable touching you” sort of way.  So it was oddly funny when one kept popping out at me while I was weeding by the frotn porch.  And then again while cleaning around the rocking chairs out there.  And then again while grabbing the scoop for the chicken feed.

He must have heard me saying how creepy I find them.  Here he is on the underside of the rocker I was tryng to clean.

Then I went to pick up the blower for the waterslide and found this guy under it:

I like frogs.  I have no problem with them, and I ended up carrying this guy over to the garden since he didn’t seem to realize how foolhardy it was to hang out on the porch (he was there for a good 4 hours after I discovered him – just sitting there).  I figured he’d be safer amongst the herbs.  It did startle me when I found him, though.  You just don’t expect a gigantic frog to be sitting under a big blower like that.

So that was my weekend.  Now the kids are home and the house is already a mess again, much to my chagrin.  Ah well…it was lovely while it lasted.  And something wonderful happened today:  my rooster crowed!  I can now happily return to the grind!