“Good morning baby. Are you ready for breakfast? I’m making one of your favorites.”

“French toast?” Angie’s face lights up.

“Yes. And it’s almost ready.”

“Come on baby. Let’s go get washed up and then we’ll help Momma by setting the table OK?”

Tina and Angie go to the bathroom to wash their hands and faces and then come back to set the table for breakfast. Bette has a stack of French toast waiting for them. Her recipe calls for vanilla extract and sugar so the toast is already sweetly flavorful. She puts out fresh seasonal berries and sliced cantaloupes along with butter and warm maple syrup. She pours coffee for herself and Tina and a glass of milk for Angie. They sit down to their first home-cooked family meal of the week.
Tina does the dishes while Bette takes Angie in to shower and get dressed. Once Angie is dressed she cleans up her room, strips her bed and gets out her laundry. Bette cleans the guest bathroom then goes into the master bedroom to strip the bed. She starts the first load of sheets and pillowcases in the washing machine and puts fresh linens on the beds. When Tina finishes in the kitchen she goes in to take her shower and gets ready to do the grocery shopping. While she’s gone Bette and Angie sweep, vacuum, clean the master bathroom and straighten up in the dining and living areas.

Once the inside of the house is done Bette goes into the backyard and gets out the grill. She checks to make sure it’s clean and ready to be fired up. It’s still early spring and too cool for the pool so the cover stays secured since they will have children plus Riley playing near it. Bette gets the plastic pool from the garage that they use to bathe Riley. She and Angie get him cleaned up. This time Bette kept control of the hose so they weren’t soaked when they finished.

When Tina got back they unpacked groceries and put everything away. Tina seasoned and marinated the meats. Bette helped with some of the side dishes and put drinks on ice in the cooler. Angie washed up and changed into jeans and a light T-shirt and sneakers. She was allowed to watch TV while her parents finished preparing the food. By now it was around 12 Noon and pretty much everything was ready so they all relaxed for a couple of hours before the guests arrived.