Well we are back from our last-minute trip to Stepford, USA.

My kids are honestly very very good on an ordinary basis - a fact which I don't take credit for and truly feel blessed about. But this was very very different. It all started when the little guy slept in suspiciously late and his brothers even later giving me a freakish boost of energy after an unusual restful night of sleep. If that wasn't clue enough, our youngest son insisted on brushing his teeth first thing in the morning instead of watching a morning show or having breakfast - his usual requests. The kids were too kind to each other, too helpful, too low maintenance and in general a little too perfect. I had bountiful energy and managed to clean the house top to bottom, dusting places that hadn't seen the light of day in a year, washing windows, cleaning the inside of appliances, vacuuming the entire house plus furniture. I did about 5 loads of laundry and watered the flowers and reorganized the kitchen counters and soon discovered that the entire house can stay clean all the time and there is still time left to relax. I feel like a housewife! I even managed to do some homeschooling with the oft-educationally-neglected 4 year old (turns out he is still quite smart despite my best efforts!). I even loaded them up, despite my blog from the previous day regarding taking kids shopping, and ran errands. Boring errands like Sears for a refrigerator filter. Then more daring errands like Toys R Us. There were no fits, no arguments, nothing but joy. Then bedtime rolled around and I got the little guy to sleep by 9pm - a good hour or more earlier than usual.

Then I woke up.

I had an odd sore throat. My flowers died despite my best efforts. The dog pooped on the carpet. Our "breakfast experiment" of "omelet in a ziplock" was a gigantic failure involving melted plastic bags and my entire body was sore from way too many hours on my feet and going up and down stairs the day before. Supermom-mode caught up to me. Hello reality check!! Still, carried by the previous day's joy and harmony, I plugged on steadfastly planning a day of extreme productivity. I started working on cutting out quilt squares for various swaps due soon and then the headache-caused-by-hunching-over-the-floor-cutting-fabric came on with a vengeance. The day was pretty much shot but I managed to do that time-honored thing most other parents who aren't spoiled by full-time-house-husbands and no jobs do and just kept on keeping on. The baby threw a few pint-sized fits, the kids weren't always thrilled about playing together, I forgot to take out the Uncrustable for lunch, I was exhausted, sick, sore. But the day wasn't a total failure. I got all my fabric cut out (no easy feat - that's like 100 fabric squares precisely measured), I made my wishes for the quilt swaps on the computer, I taught the kids how to load the dishwasher *properly* and got them into the habit of loading it after meals instead of stacking in the sink, we made homemade cookies and turned them into ice cream sandwiches and I managed to get the baby in bed and *to sleep* by 8pm, kept the house clean, vacuumed, dusted and free of dishes.

I woke up this morning, too early (that's what happens when the baby goes to bed at 8!!!), the pain in my feet and legs and head is (mostly) gone and the garbage made it to the curb in time (first time in 3 weeks, I might add - that is a LOT of garbage!!) and I didn't bother making a hot breakfast. I decided I'm no one's maid which means I'm not jumping up to get new drinks, forks, or other things the kids are capable of getting themselves. I'm taking more time for me. I'm insisting the little guy play by himself once in awhile. I think today might be my day of happy equilibrium.