Quiet has returned to the house. It actually returned yesterday, but I didn’t tell anyone. It was a happy noise, though, so wasn’t unwelcome. But it’s also nice when the quiet descends in it’s place. At least for a little while.

All the happy noise was related to Lydia’s birthday. It was her choice to spend her 1st night as a full fledged 14-year-old in our basement with two friends, Bree & Marissa, and her 5-year-old cousin, Gilligan. Bailee could have stayed, too, but she wouldn’t eat her turkey sandwich and that turned into a very big deal. That, and she’s not potty trained, yet. She knows she can’t stay the night until that happens so I think she’s intentionally putting it off for fear that she’ll have to spend the night.

Gilligan, of course, was delighted to spend time with “her cousin”. The entire time she was here she never once called Lydia by name … it was “Birthday Girl,” every time. Funny child, wise beyond her years.

Yesterday morning she checked all the cereal boxes to see how much sugar they had and picked the one with the least. Interesting.

After the birthday party on Tuesday, Jennie took all the girls shopping at Target. This was a prearranged trip so Lydia could spend her money on clothes, and Bree could get some parts for her skate board. Upon their return Lydia gave us a fashion show and Bree wanted to borrow some wrenches so she could replace the bearings on her board.

By the time all the clothes were displayed it was well past Diane’s and my bedtime so we excused ourselves and headed over to the East Wing, away from the noise. Since the East Wing, where the bedrooms are, is just around the corner from the living room, we didn’t miss out on any of the continuing conversation and the skitter of little feet as they padded down the hall to the bathroom for the tenth time, in an effort to stay awake and make every second count. Yes, it was Gilligan all the way … she was the only one we could hear talking and there was no doubt whose little feet those were. They were all in the living room, by the way, because Diane was afraid the girls would get cold in the basement. They were all happy with that decision.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, almost 70. While the sun shine was going on Diane and I had a very nice lunch of biscuits and gravy, then took a 2 hour nap. When we woke up we decided to drive to Longview to get the shoe moulding we need to finish the bedroom baseboards. I spent the rest of the sunny time in the basement putting a coat of polyurethane on all the baseboard pieces then went outside to see how much of the back yard I could get mowed before the rain came.

Upon approaching the lawn mower it became evident that my first stop would be the burn pile to empty the bags. I didn’t empty them on Monday because I was in a hurry to get to my Lion meeting. So, they sat there decomposing for two days. When I dumped them the grass was smoking, literally, and was close to combustion from the heat. And it smelled really bad.

About the time I got the bags emptied the rain started. It was light at first, so I kept going. I was able to fill all three bags two more times before I decided it was time to call it a day. Had I skipped that nap earlier in the day I could have finished the entire yard. Maybe today will be nice again. If not, there’s always tomorrow. Or the next day.

It’s almost 9:30 and Diane’s about the head out to get her Mom and go to quilting at church. That means I have to make a decision about taking another nap, or going to the basement to put another coat of polyurethane on the baseboards. Decisions, decisions.

I better go to the basement.