This has been one of those busy weeks where life just doesn’t stop.  Tuesday we dealt with a circuit problem in the house which left half my house without power.  Not the end of the world- just annoying and a little worrying when your handymen friends are say things like “I don’t think there is a fire in your walls…”.   Thankfully there were no fires, just a relatively small problem that took us 12 hours to locate.  Our friend who finally figured it out was rewarded with beer and a game (or 12) of Baseball on the Wii until late at night. I felt like I was in college again, only with a bigger TV, better beer and cooler gaming console.

Then last night I had a meeting after work.  I don’t get out often without kids, so I milked this meeting for all it’s worth.  I picked up take out, I went shopping. I stayed out late because I could and I enjoyed every minute of the silence.

My family is many wonderful things- but they aren’t quiet.  Ever. And if they are, I’m scared because that means they are doing something they shouldn’t and don’t want to draw attention.  Like the other night when the Bean went into my room because she wanted to “read” to Mooch, our cat.  After a few minutes when I stopped hearing her talking I went in to check and found her, and the cat’s paws, covered with Vaseline.  The cat was, as you can imagine, thrilled.

I have to admit, I’m just as guilty as the kids of being loud. I talk to myself, sing to myself, talk to the kids or Hubs or the animals all the time.  The only time I’m ever quiet really is when I’m reading- of which I’ve done a lot of this week.* Sometimes the loudness is a good thing.  Like tonight when the Bean was fake sobbing over some injustice before bed (aka: her stalling tactics didn’t work).  As soon as she started in, I started signing loudly to drown her out.  Scorch was with us, so he started singing backup for me as I made up crazier and crazier lyrics until we were all laughing and the Bean was finally ready for bed.

The moment was capped completely when we were done and Scorch looks at me says “Mom- you have a horrible voice.” And the Bean pipes up and says “yeah- you bad.”  They are right- I do and I am, but I’m still going to keep belting out the tunes anyhow.
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This week I’ve managed to read 4 books:

– Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.  I wanted to like this story, I really did. But it was just blah. A long book about a whole lot of nothing.
– SpyGlass by Maria V. Snyder.  This is the 6th book I’ve read by her and I still don’t understand why I like them so much, but I do! Quick easy reads.
– Matched by Ally Condie. A dystopian YA novel about a world in the future where everything is perfect. All your choices are made for you, including what you eat, who you marry, what job you do, etc.  But what happens when you want to make your own choices?  A little slow, but quite good. I guess this is the first in a trilogy, so I’ll be interested to read the next two when they come out!
– Third Degree by Greg Iles- Eh. It kept my attention and I read it quickly (started it last night and finished it this evening), but there wasn’t a lot of meat to this novel.  Most of his other thrillers are more layered- but they are also part of a series. This was a one off and took place over about 12 hours, so you never really delved into the character deeply.