How I Used My Furlough

This is how I spent my time while my dear husband took the kids camping:

Tidied the kitchen.
Put little baggies over the 22 seed pots that my kids planted.
Went to see Revolutionary Road.
Returned a totebag I had purchased from Barnes and Noble.
Used a gift card to buy the following:

1. The English Civil War: Papists, Gentlewomen, Soldiers, and Witchfinders in the Birth of Modern Britain, Diane Purkiss
2. The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber
3. Our First Revolution: The Remarkable British Upheaval that Inspired American's Founding Fathers, Michael Barone
4. My Life in France, Julia Child
5. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, Candice Millard (this one is for my husband)
6. Goodnight Nobody, Jennifer Weiner (Yes. I did. I bought it.)

Came home to eat turkey chili dinner while watching BJD
Decided to read the Weiner book while eating strawberry rhubarb pie.
Realized one paragraph into the book that I'd already read it. Bah.
Started on the Julia Child book. Very fun.
Slept well.
Woke up and read, and even let the dog on the bed so I'd have company.
Showered.
Tidied and made a chai latte.
Sat and read some more until the family came home around noon. Total luxury.

The kids and the dad had a wonderful time, but unfortunately this story does not have a completely happy ending. My poor husband now has an unbelievably awful case of poison oak on his arms, all over his face, and in other really terrible places on his body. It's so bad that he says this is the worst thing that has ever happened to him. And I believe him.

The good news is that, so far, the kids have no signs of it. But I'm not sure how ready he'll be to take them back to that spot. . .