My weekend to myself

This weekend I received my reward for over a week of solo parenting while my husband partied in the US. He took the children with him up to his parents, leaving me alone at home for a glorious two nights. Here are some of the many things that I enjoyed while they were away:

Sleep! On Friday night I had the best night's sleep that I have had in years. Literally in years. I have had nights away without children before, but not in my own bed and not without having drunk alcohol. On Saturday morning a thunderstorm woke me up at 5am but I went back to sleep and slept until 9.30am. Heaven. Sleeping so late did make the day seem much shorter though!

The silence. Absolute silence in the house. I could also make as much noise as I wanted, without worrying about waking sleeping babies. I watched television with the door open and I hoovered in the evening.

My timetable was my own. Since we started weaning, the day has been marked out by mealtimes, and not necessarily at the times I want them. Breakfast is at 7am, lunch is at 12pm, dinner is at 6pm. I ate my lunch at 1pm and dinner at 7pm, just because I could.

I tidied things up, and they stayed tidy. Below is our wonderful toy kitchen, and it has never looked like this before. For the time being at least, everything is stored inside, sorted into different boxes, and not scattered throughout the house, hidden in child sized shopping bags or piled up on top waiting to be put away (okay, it looks like there is still one cup around somewhere that needs to be tracked down).

It was a similar story with the cleaning. And there was so much less of it, I ate breakfast and put my plate and knife in the dishwasher. There was no other washing up, no surfaces needed wiping, the floor didn't need sweeping.

I left out my crafting projects. I left my knitting out like this, overnight. With a needle out in the middle and everything. It was all in exactly the same place when I got up the next morning!

My mini Hama bead project remained undisturbed, even when left out precariously on the table.

I could start something and finish it without being interrupted. I could also tidy and throw things away unnoticed and without complaint.

I watched grown up television during the day. It's not so much the adult content that stops me when there are small children around, just the fact that they won't tolerate it.

After I had eaten my dinner, I washed up and then that was it. No spending another hour and a half doing the bath and bed time routine. All that extra time in my day!

I had a very productive weekend. I did some holiday planning and wrote and scheduled all my blog posts for when we are away. I wrote guest posts, and I worked on some crafty projects. I took long baths and read. I even went to the gym, and I didn't get lonely at all. Of course I did miss everyone, and I worried about them while they were away, but I know that the break did me a lot of good.

What would you do on a weekend by yourself?