When the Cat's Away. . .

James comes home tomorrow morning from a 2 week work assignment in Virginia. So really instead of typing this, I should be cleaning the house so he doesn't have to come home to chaos. Not that he expects the house to be spotless. Just seems like it the thing to do.

James' job frequently takes him away from home. The longest was five months in 2004, so two weeks should be a piece of cake, right? No matter how long or how short it is, there are certain things that just don't get done around our home nearly as often when James is away, some because he does it and some just because I get lazy.

1. Cooking: I really don't mind cooking. I know some of you would rather do anything than cook, but I kind of enjoy it. However, A.J. would rather eat PB&J for breakfast, lunch and dinner than just about anything else. Me, I can only eat PB&J once a day. Cereal or eggo waffles gets us through breakfast, but dinner is a problem. I am programed to make four servings when I cook so most things last two meals. I don't mind leftovers twice, but I cannot eat Hamburger Helper for 4 meals straight! I'm not exactly sure what we've eaten for two weeks but some how we survived. I am looking forward to James coming home so I can start eating real food again.

2. Grocery Shopping: kind of related to the cooking thing. Yesterday, I went to the Super WalMart for the first time in three weeks! That must be some kind of record for me. I did make a quick trip to Smith's last weekend for a few essentials (we were out of ice cream and popsicles and since I was there I picked up some fresh produce.) Yesterday, I finally had to do real grocery shopping because we were out of Jelly.

3. Laundry: James is a big guy and his clothes take up a lot of space in the laundry basket. A couple of times in the past two of weeks, I realized A.J. didn't have any shorts to wear. How could that be? The laundry baskets are only half full. So I did a few loads a couple of times, but never folded them. That is something that James and I usually do together while we watch TV after A.J. goes to bed. Last night, I finally folded all that laundry and it took me two episodes of Alias to get it all done and put away!

4. Cleaning in general: I mentioned in yesterday's post that I am not a neat freak. Really, I am more of a slob. Now James isn't a neat freak either, but he isn't nearly as much of a slob as I am. And he does plenty to help out in this areas as well. So tomorrow morning, I am going to mop our kitchen floor and vacuum before he gets here. The bathrooms are just going to have to wait.

5. Parenting: OK, I don't give up on being a parent all together. But I sure am a better parent when I get a break once in a while. A.J. actually did awesome the first week. I don't remember that long of a stretch of naughty-step-free days. But this week it all fell apart. There's been a little too much whining from him, and a little too much yelling from me.

Now there ARE a few extra bonuses to James going out of town:

1. Guilty free crafting time. Once A.J. goes to bed at night, I've been known to spend hours down in my craft room. And if A.J. is entertained by a movie or surfing playhousedisney.com, I might get to sneak in a few hours during the day too.

2. I can put whatever I want on our Blockbuster queue. I rented The Holiday (total chick flick!) and I've watched a season and a half of Alias, (now there's a woman who doesn't take nothin' from nobody!).

But we've both really missed James and we are really looking forward to him coming home tomorrow.

UPDATE . . .

My new Stampin' Up catalog has arrived!!!! I was out running errands when I heard the good news so I stopped off at Bry's to pick it up. Oh, I had an order of stuff too which I am usually dying to get my hands on, but the new catalog was way more important! Lots of new stuff, lots of great ideas to "case" or "scraplift." Now I just have to start planning my purchases out over the next several months so I don't go broke all at once!

And one of my errands today was to Costco where I stumbled across a great buy on an awesome tote made by All My Memories. Did I NEED one? Of course not. But did I HAVE to have it? You bet! It was about half off of retail, so who could resist? It kind of looks like an electrician's tool bag that you would see at a hardware store, but it is all dolled up for crafting. I got the black one with pinstripes. So cute!