Nobody's been sick (thank heavens!), but otherwise it's the standard reasons.

It was mid-winter break

Through careful planning, I finally had a break that didn't involve lots of sitting around the house. (More in an upcoming entry) But it certainly meant more on time from me.

John was out of town for three days

I know lots of other families have one parent out of town frequently, but in our house it's a once or twice a year occurrence, in other words, a big deal. It actually went very smoothly. And some of John's jobs I just didn't take on--leftovers Wednesday night, Burger store Thursday night, sushi Friday night--meant no cooking for me. But I still had to do the dishes, do the laundry, sort and put away the laundry, get all meals actually on the table, do his half of the tidying, and do David's bedtime routine, in addition to my normal gigs.

I had a job

This is the real reason I couldn't do my own writing. Every spare minute where I wasn't slumped on the couch exhausted I devoted to proofreading a business text. I am thrilled to do paid work and work that uses a different part of my brain than trying to head off Rose's foul mood and convince David it would be fun to shop for diapers, but it's amazing how much my life gets in the way of getting work done. On Friday, David was in school and Rose had a play date. After drop-off and pick-up, I presumably had 120 minutes of billable time. I earned 70. The rest of time went to all the other tasks I had to get done when I didn't have David sitting in my lap and Rose wanting to show me her dance moves.

But, John's back, vacation is over, and so is the job. Tonight for blogging, tomorrow poetry!