While I was away, I made this list.

Pros of living with parents for over a month:

1. No rent.
2. They haven't asked me to cook or clean anything.
3. Three babysitters who cost nothing and are overjoyed with the job.
4. A dog!
5. A huge yard, full of colorful flower gardens and flowering trees.
6. My laundry is hung to dry on a clothes line! Ahhh...that fresh air smell.
7. People have been bringing me flowers to cheer me up during this tough time.
8. Women in my parents church knitted me a prayer shawl. In purple, because they know it's my favorite color.
9. I do love my parents.

Cons of living with my parents:

1. At least three times a week I want to strangle my mother. It passes, but it reminds me why I like her so much more now than I did when I lived with her all the time .
2. Mom, Dad and Sister are all slobs. I don't just mean clothes on the floor, I mean unidentifiable smells coming from somewhere in the kitchen and a half an hour search to discover chinese food that had been left out for a few days.
3. Apparently the lush, fertile ground makes this particular area of the country the worst for seasonal allergy sufferers. For a few days at the beginning of this month, Sam and I couldn't leave the house because our nostrils would seal themselves shut and Sam's tear ducts would start producing "goo".
4. Dog hair is all over everything. Sam thought it was edible for a while. Ew.

The Pros far outweigh the Cons, until we get to this:

I miss my husband.