We arrived back from Florida on Friday evening. My parents are still there, trying to get home in the middle of hurricane Jeanne. I haven't heard from them so I'm making the assumption that they're fine - the hotel we stayed at hadn't been touched in the last three (!) storms so I'm sure that everything's just ducky. A crappy way to end a vacation, let alone live a life as so many people seem to be doing lately. The problems from Charley, Frances and Ivan haven't been cleared up yet and along comes Jeanne fresh from causing so much destruction in Haiti, a storm that appeared last weekend to be melting away into a minor little nothing. She changed her mind, apparently.


This week promises to be a very busy one. In addition to all of the activity that comes with finishing a trip there is the matter of the Boy Wonder's fourth birthday party later this week, complete with aunts and cousins from out of town. Watch for later posts in which our heroine produces a spaceship birthday cake, star shaped cookies and eight goodie bags with appropriate astronaut-themed contents. I had hoped to make star and moon bean bags for use with our parachute as a party activity and then for the kids to take home, but I really just have to draw the line somewhere and that seems as good a place as any.


I also need to get the last of the tomatoes canned. We had a good amount of rain from Ivan which cause many of the remaining tomatoes to split, so before I left I picked every one that was still intact. They're mostly red now so I want to get them put up and off the counter. I'm also keen to finish a sewing project - a fabric book to be put aside for the Little Diva for Christmas. A nice, basic project to improve my skills. Plus, it's cute and just the thing for a babe to chew on and look at.


While I'm doing all of this, my husband will be bricking in a walkway, pruning hydrangeas and spreading mulch. Our household to-do list is getting seriously out of hand and I'm trying to adopt a zen approach to the fact that the kitchen floor still isn't completed. The floor itself is in, but the trim has yet to be placed. And, the user's guide has been waiting patiently for me. I've had no brilliant insights and no profound inspiration so I guess the only way out is through.