I stayed at home on Friday to give the kids and myself a nice long weekend in which to finish some long-standing projects. Normally, this kind of planning doesn't really pan out for us because we get distracted by the sudden desire to spend two hours running around a playground or there comes an overwhelming need to lie around looking at clouds or we fail to ignore the siren call of Zingo and before you know it - poof! - an entire weekend has come and gone.

This time we managed not only to read about three dozen books (must look into getting a bigger library bag) and watch the latest Bearnstein Bears delivery from Netflix, but we also completed one toile dress, one apron (a gift for my sis-in-law - don't tell!) and two enormous reading pillows (stuffing fluff into pillows is a very fun activity to undertake with little ones, even if the process requires infinitely more time and patience than might otherwise be required), planted four rooted tomato suckers, enjoyed the first of what we hope will be a bumper crop of Sungolds, tried a new restaurant that's been on our list for a while, set out some Japanese beetle traps (which filled almost instantaneously), replaced a couple ball joints on one of the cars (more of a Brainiac operation, with extra emphasis on the aforementioned "infinitely more time and patience", not to mention a fair amount of muscle cream on the resulting sore shoulders), caught up on laundry (the kids love to "fold" and I am happy to let them experiment with the process under the "whistle while you work" clause in the parenting manual and because having them master the "GAP fold" is something in which I have no intention of investing time or energy so I suck it up and live with whatever they manage) and just generally had a great time.

The only thing I ignored was weeding. I am in full-on weeding rebellion, something I know that I will regret and for which I have no excuse other than I Don't Feel Like It. I meant to put down more newspaper last night but totally forgot, becoming engrossed instead in a biography of Sister Parish, someone who - I am quite sure - probably never thought so much about weeds. But it was nice to check out for a while, snuggle in with a Brainiac-poured (and hence quite strong) cocktail and enjoy the satisfaction of jobs well-done. This week will bring more canning (various kinds of pickles and possibly the long hoped-for blueberry pie filling), more laundry (with homemade laundry soap? more on this in another post), and, yes, the weeding. But I suppose even the weeding brings satisfactions of its own, if looked at in the right way.