Listen…

Do you hear it?

That, my friends, is the sound of silence (cue Simon and Garfunkle background music).

“But, what have you done with the children?” you ask.

Well, I left them in Las Vegas. And–to answer your next question about what kind of mother leaves her children in the City of Sin– the kind who has saintly in-laws willing to keep them for a week.

So what am I going to do with my kid-free week?  Well, since you asked (you’re just chock full of questions today) here is my list:

* Clean and organize all of my closets
* Make my garden grow — the food plants in it, not the weed ones (that part I’ve mastered)
* Pay the bills and make a budget that will magically make it easier to afford to pay the bills
* Throw away all the crap my kids have collected– and forgotten– but can’t possibly live without if they see it in the trash
* Turn our garbage dump back into a garage
* Not eat the dozen Bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes that are in my fridge
* Fill the water barrels. Because it’s been two years and they are not going to fill themselves
* Learn how to use my food storage
* Get some food storage
* Write a book

Here is what I have actually accomplished:

* Eaten only two bundtlets
* Stared at a blank computer screen
* Surfed (the internet)
* Got a pedicure
* Had lunch with friends

Mostly though, I have sat in my too quiet house trying to enjoy the silence, but really just missing the noise. 

… Maybe not the fighting noise though.

…Yeah, definitely not missing that.