...to be all alone

...just for the day...

...and it was lovely.

There was no snow day.  All the kids were healthy and went off to school and Mark headed off to work on campus for the day.  I had 4.5 hours all to myself.  The silence was sweet.

I didn't do anything frivolous like get my nails done or go shopping but I was able to clean the whole house without interruption!

For the first time in months, our whole house was clean.  All.At.Once.  No matter that it lasted all of about five minutes after our first child got home...but it is just the satisfaction of knowing all three bathrooms were sparkling.

Just to celebrate the quiet, and the clean, I decided to make an oldy-but-goody for the kids for after school.

No Bake Cookies

2 sticks butter
4 cups sugar (you can go a little light on the sugar)
1/2 cup Hershey's chocolate
1 cup milk

Bring these ingredients to boil for one minute.  Remove from the stove and then add:

7 cups quick oats
1 cup peanut butter
2 t vanilla

Scoop spoonfuls of the cookie mixture onto wax paper and let set for about an hour or two.

I have found these cookies to be a little bit tricky.  If you boil them too long, they'll be dry and crumbly (but instead will make a delicious topping for yogurt!).  If you don't boil them long enough they'll be sticky and won't set (but who doesn't love a gooey mess of chocolate to snack on?).  This evening they turned out perfect.

Perhaps its because they were cooked in a clean kitchen.