“Wow, Mommy! You look just like a queen in that apron!”

Most queens, I bet, spend their afternoons makeupless and covered in splatters of a homeschool science experiment gone awry, while scrubbing a sink full of dishes in an apron. And this, of course, was just a couple of hours after disposing of a mouse that the girls insisted had been up all night. Which was why he was sleeping so soundly. In the mousetrap.

Because there’s nothing like sleeping off an all-nighter in a five-star sticky-trap.

(I’ll spare you a photo.)

My husband is on another work trip, and it has been an adventure to say the least. It usually is. The girls miss him, so I’ve been working hard to add a little more sparkle to their week while he’s away.

On Monday, that meant packing up our schoolwork and trekking through the rain to the coffee shop down the street. The kids spread out their books on a large table in front of the huge windows and watched the downpour while cozily munching on treats and finishing all of their least favourite subjects in record time.

Donuts for the win.

That evening, once everyone finished dinner, I moved the coffee table out of the living room and spread out a picnic blanket. The girls brought their pillows, blankets and stuffies downstairs and we watched a movie and ate ice cream.

Yesterday, we did our schoolwork on the living room floor and then played board games on the rug. When my husband heard about how much fun we’ve been having with the extra space, he texted to suggest that we get rid of the coffee table permanently.

My husband is a keeper. The coffee table is toast.

Today, we made popcorn. And a volcano. I’m still picking pieces of plaster out of my hair and we haven’t even erupted it yet. But hey, nothing says sparkle like popcorn and plaster volcanoes, right?

Of course, all this extra pizzazz doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten impatient.

Or yelled once or twice.

Or locked myself in the bathroom.

Or hidden under a pile of blankets (on the bed that I forgot to make) while desperately praying that no one would find me. They did in all of 0.003 nanoseconds.

There have been sibling wars, spills and paint on the kitchen floor. The bathroom cupboard broke and there was that incident with the mouse. And my four-year old may or may not have called Grandma yesterday to ask if she could move there. But I think that’s all the more reason to search for ways to make each day a little more fun.

After all, it’s the queen’s job to make things sparkle and they’ve dubbed me the queen—apron and all. In true homeschool-mom style, the girls even made me a neon pink sentence-strip crown.

So sparkle we shall.

Here’s hoping your week sparkles too.

xo