Ethan and Rachel are coming home tonight. I haven’t seen them since the morning of the 7th.

Tonight we’re having hot dogs for supper in order to relax for our last couple hours of freedom.

Putting the mustard on my bun, I remember how when Ethan was a toddler and I put mustard on his hotdog, I would carefully draw a zig-zag with it like they do in commercials because Ethan got excited about having a dinosaur hotdog with a spikey back.

In our household, I prefer mustard and no ketchup, as does Ethan. Rachel and Ian prefer ketchup and no mustard. So the kids have divided us into teams. And at each meal featuring these condiments, Rachel will say so casually to me, “Mama, you should really try ketchup sometime. It’s SO good.” Because if I do try ketchup, then she will have recruited me onto their team. And I reply, “Oh no. I don’t need ketchup when I have this mustard that’s so good. You should try it sometime.” And she giggles and refuses.

Ian’s handling Hannah in the livingroom right now. When I walk in, she looks at me with evident joy and exclaims, “naing-naing-naing.” And I say, “I’m, Mama. Not naing-naing.” A pause, and she smiles wisely and replies, “naing-naing!”

We’ve accomplished nothing with our week off. Except that Hannah’s sleep is slowly getting better. And my aunt has a working car. So that’s all right.

And I managed to write for an hour today. My book is, mm, progressing.

And I’ve eaten a lot of ice cream and did some sleeping in. Okay, what am I talking about, didn’t accomplish anything?