We couldn’t resist. In spite of our late start and another stop on the way, we also stopped to eat with some friends on our way home, this time meeting them in their home. Do you remember the first time we met them?

We didn’t get home until after 1 AM but it was worth the sweet fellowship! Not to mention the fact that Emily sent me home with a bag of Starbucks Caramel Macchiato Truffles…

While we were still on the road, after leaving our friends’ house, one of the younger children asked what time we would get home.

“Very late,” I answered. “In the middle of the night?” she asked. “Yes, something like that.”

“Midnight, then!” she concluded.

“No, it will be later than midnight,” I added. “Maybe much later.” She was confused. “But isn’t midnight the middle of the night?”

This was where hubby chuckled. He softly observed that midnight is the middle of the night when you’re little. But that doesn’t work in our house. We tend to be night owls, and in our house even the little ones stay up late. I just answered her a little louder: “No, midnight isn’t the middle of the night in our house.”

The house was a little stale and stinky when we crawled through the door, but home was a welcome sight. We let the dogs in, brought in most of our luggage and odds & ends, and collapsed into our beds just before 2 AM.

My hardworking hubby slipped out of bed at some six-ish or seven-ish hour to go to work, leaving the rest of us to sleep late. I love that guy.

When we finally got up, we got busy returning to normalcy:

• we unpacked all the suitcases and hauled them down to the she
• we started laundry; bathed the stinky little Yorkie dog
• we started a crock pot of beans
• we did more laundry
• we sorted through all the odds and ends that came home with us
• we made bread (This will be a post in itself. There’s even a video.)
• we did more laundry
• we paid a couple of bills that just couldn’t wait until normalcy was achieved
• we sorted and culled boxes and boxes of hand-me-downs that we picked up from an aunt on the way home
• we ironed, folded and put away a mountain of clean laundry

Then it was reward time: we called my mom to see if we could come visit her and the kids, my 4 youngest sibs aged 10-13.

Oops. They were 80 miles north visiting the new grandbaby and wouldn’t be back until the next day. We were disappointed but too tired to fuss over it. I let the kids vegetate in front of a movie while I took a much-needed nap. Does anyone else think it’s funny how often my posts mention sleep?

If you're new here, please take a moment to introduce yourself! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

You loved it, right? Here's more like it:

1. My day was just peachy
2. There’s no place like home
3. Reasons to be thankful at 3 AM
4. Still alive
5. Real Life is back

Filed under: Uncategorized