2 mops, a wall of sand, and Mother's Day, early.

A friend had a doctor's appointment today and asked if I could pick up her daughter when I picked up Honor. No problem. The 3 of us, came back to the house and had a little playdate as well. When the girls were playing, I finished up my laundry, then took a break. My next job was mopping the house and there was no way to do that with wild girls and cats romping about.

I sat down to check the news headlines and found there was too much that was really not very nice out there today - incest case, cyclone deaths. I could only take so much of that, so I sort of sat there for a bit staring out the window, looking for motivation to start some other job. As I watched, the sky darkened, turned yellow, and a wall of sand blew through. Welcome to Khamseen number ??what?? this year. We've definitely had an overly generous helping of sandstorms this season. Glad I had closed the windows earlier - it got up to 100 about the time the girls got home so I had just battened down the hatches and turned on the AC - just in time.

Anyway, Brian got home in the middle of the flying sand and got to work on his homework. I took our neighbor's daughter home. Honor and I decided that this was a good time to do housework together. As I cleared the dishes and filled the mop bucket, she wiped down the bathrooms. Then we each got a mop and cleaned the whole house. This has to be done at least weekly. We do not get dust bunnies here... we get herds of dust elephants. I spot mop and vacuum here and there regularly, but once a week, all the rugs come up. We sweep, vacuum and mop. Closets and everything. Last weekend. I got a spare mop... one for me, one for my littlest helper. It wasn't one of my fastest or most effective mop jobs, but definitely one of the most special. We even mopped the balcony.

Brian was happy to have peace and quiet to get some computer gaming in. He is truly enjoying his game. He helped my later at dinner time by pouring everyone's drinks and feeding the cats.

Brian brought me a couple of early Mother's Day gifts today. One was a handmade set of customized papers and envelopes in a folder - Mom's Notes. Another was a sweet card, 10 things I know about my Mom:

1. My Mom is cute. (btw, all the 'o's in the word 'mom' throughout the card were 'hearts'!)
2. She is also very helpful.
3. I love her super much. (The 'o' in love was also a heart.)
4. She likes to make up recipes.
5. She likes to sew.
6. She has 2 children. (I told him that he left out 'wonderful'.)
7. She doesn't like to take a cab unless she's with Honor. (I don't think he was appreciating my exercising; more likely I'm getting points for saving the planet by not wasting gas, as he learned during their Earth Day celebrations.)
8. She was born in Florida. (The kids enjoyed Disney and Sanibel!)
9. She is living in Egypt.
10. She is the best mom.
He drew a heart - with a smiley face - eyes and teeth made of hearts, in the center. Oh yea, this is a keeper. :-)

Anyway, Honor was very tired, she had a bit of a tantrum before dinner, but some tickles and apple slices cheered her up and kept her going until dinner and bed time. She crashed as soon as she hit her pillow. Brian was coughing alot because of the dusty air. He felt better after a shower. Good enough to stay up until 8:30 to read a new book about Pecos Bill, one of a pile that I just ordered from Book Closeouts - they have good stuff and good prices.

I am exhausted - in addition to the regular housework, I ended up moving furniture in the living room again. It wasn't quite right... much better now, but I think I am finally going to get rid of my old rocking chair. What a nice day though - although I hope tomorrow is lazier!