Child free Saturday morning.

Still no Daphne...

but in good news on the pet front, we took Molly back to the canine eye doctor and her eyes are SO much better. No operation needed, the ulcer is nearly gone. Yay. So there's different pills to shove down her neck, and the saga continues, but it's looking good.

The afghan... ahh, the afghan. I did quite a bit yesterday. I was exhausted when I got home, so I had a packet of potato chips for dinner, (they were chicken ones, so that's good for me, right?), and went to bed with my knitting, Oprah and Dr Phil. Sounds like it's lucky no-one got their eye poked out with the knitting needles doesn't it? I know that anyone married will probably be aghast and would think that spending a child free Friday night like this is a wanton waste of precious time. But trust me... it was bliss. I've found that after having a trip overseas (first Bali last year and now Phukhet) it takes me about three weeks to recover my bounce. It's still worth it though.

This weekend is earmarked for the usual pursuits. Veggie gardening, ( a trip to the local market for seedlings is happening tomorrow. Can't wait!), biscuit and cake making for lunches and after school, veggie soup making for lunches for me, mowing the lawn so the cat doesn't have an unfair advantage when stalking the pigeons, (I should've said cats. But I'm a bit pessimistic about Daph...), knitting, reading AND vacuuming. Some of the dust bunnies are bigger than Molly.

On a slightly different tangent... why are some house keeping jobs appealing, and others are blah? It's different for everyone. For instance; I could hang washing on the line till the cows come home. But as for folding it, yuck. You've heard of dumpster diving? We do jocks diving, otherwise known as Lucky Dip In The Clean Clothes Basket. It's no way to live, but I do it to us nearly every week. It's got to the stage where the spot in the walkway where I park the basket looks strangely empty if I've been organised and done the folding. The crazy thing is that it's not a big job. I fold the clothes into piles, and then each kid puts his clothes away.

Does anyone like vacuuming? I hate it. And yet, when it's finished I love the way the house looks. All dust free and shiny. (I have wooden floors.) Without fail I say to myself, "That wasn't so bad. The house looks great. I'm never going to leave it so long between vacuums again." Then I empty the bag into the bin, put it away in the hall cupboard and avoid it like the plague until we either
a) have guests or
b) we start giving names to the dust bunnies. We're at this stage now.

Open the door to my pantry and you'd be amazed and so impressed with the organisation. Everything is lined up, labels facing outward. Same with the fridge. Every time I shop I rotate everything, so nothing goes off. I have a list on the outside of the freezer so I know what's in there at any given time, (ok, it's little out of date, but it's easy to see how many tubs of ice cream we've got. 4 litre tubs are hard to miss, even in a freezer my size). My friend Sandy said once, "I know why we get along so well. You're as meticulous as I am. You just hide it better!"

My bookshelves are organised. I can lay my hand on any book I own at a moments notice. I actually love ironing. It just takes so long to get it all done, but I find it a pleasurable job to do around the house. Mowing the lawn is also good. I can go into the happy place inside my head and mechanically mow away.

OH MY GOD!!!!! Daphne has just walked through the door!!!!! Seriously!!!! Right now.

I've plonked a bowl of food in front of her for a reward and shut her in the laundry so she can eat it without Maris's help. I can't believe it. She just strolled in the lounge room behind Maris, nonchalantly miaowing "Hello, where's breakfast?"

Now I know she's safe, I want to kill her. I've got to go and text the boys to let them know she's back. They're at their Dad's this weekend. (Hence the chicken chips and farnarkling with Phil and Oprah.) Hooray! My family is all safe and accounted for again.