Grinding

Thing 1 went to the neighbor's to play right after lunch. Thing 2 moped around the house lonely and looking for someone (mommy) to play with. Mommy moped around the house exhausted from staying up all night the night before, and frustrated from cleaning up the messes I've been making. All I really wanted was a nap. I did get up enough motivation, though, to use up some old bananas and make banana bread. Thing 2 helped a lot - she mashed the bananas, and ground a cup or so of wheat... it entertained her for half an hour or so, and it was delightful having the help. She got tired of helping and ducked out before the bread went in the oven.

Koffeeklatch

I had my girlfriends over this morning. This is a group of wonderful women who all had morning kindergarteners in the same class as my daughter. The kids would get out of school and then be forced to play with each other for an hour while the moms sat outside the school talking. Our kids have moved on to first grade, but since it's been... oh, my first years of college since I had a group of friends like this, we're trying to get together once a month for the hot beverage of choice.
This was the first time I've hosted, the first time a couple of the women in the group had seen my house, so the whole place had to be presentable enough for a tour. The end result, my house is cleaner, my conversational requirement has been relieved a little, and I single handedly ate 1/4th of a pan of coffee cake. I did not clean hubby's office, which is reaching disaster area status, or the girl's playroom, which has their latest playmobil world scattered around, we just stood in the doorways and peered into those rooms. Everything else is quite a bit tidier than normal. My lovely friends don't need to know that, though.