vacation

This Summer Vacation is a Full Time Job

kanniduba5 Comments

And I’m not complaining! 🙂

Each day looks similar to the one before:

Be up and moving, showered (if the shower is able to be used—a hit and miss proposition) and dressed, cars out of the driveway, doors unlocked, lights on, Mister out of his underoos and into clothes, and coffee brewing by 7:15 am…a number of guys start showing up…1, 3, 5, 7…we never know. Load the cooler, serve up coffee to the ones who drink it (only a couple…the rest prefer to take their caffeine in a can.) Touch base, answer questions, ask others. The day proceeds…cleaning construction dust, taking care of laundry, trying not to be in the way, keeping Legos out of the doorway so no one kills themselves, trips to Lowes for paint, lights, paint, mirrors, paint, paint, paint, and more paint. Trying to fit in fun with the kids in between playing referee…(THAT job is getting old.) Answer more questions, running errands to the store, chiropractor appointments, volleyball camp, basketball camps, viola lessons, piano lessons, gymnastics…seeing the teenager off on various adventures, laboring over every single solitary decision I make as she begins the painful process of learning to fly on her own. More refereeing, more questions, more paint, and lots more dusting and vacuuming. Cooking (not so much) husband traveling (quite a lot.) Guys leave around 4:00, house is quiet, evening settles in to a regular routine…except a new one that involves only one toilet, one sink (the kitchen one) and one shower that may or may not be operational on any given day…finding showers to use elsewhere (a trip next door or a trip to Mom and Dad’s?? Who have we inconvenienced the least in the past few days??) Collapsing into bed at 8:00 to keep the Fibro in check…Mister getting up in the night? Maybe, maybe not. Too tired to even dream…and it all begins again the next morning.

Gotta tell you, we are having a GREAT summer in spite of all the chaos!

Our annual vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey two weeks ago with my parents and sister’s family was a wonderful break from all things stressful and we couldn’t have enjoyed it more.  I even managed to get up to see a few sunrises!  The first was by far the most beautiful of the week.  All alone on the beach, with my coffee in one hand and my camera in the other, taking peace and renewal from the sea and sun.

Evenings have become our favorite time…we return to the beach after a family dinner and enjoy the sunset and the quiet.  On one particular evening we were treated to a rainbow out over the ocean.  That’s something you don’t get to see everyday!

Another brilliant sunrise, this one taken from the front window of our beach house:

 

And yet another sunrise, this one shared with my two daughters…precious moments to remember.

More to tell and a lot more photos to share, but One Fine Summer is in desperate need of an update, so I’m going to hop on over there for a bit.  I will be back with more from our vacation soon.  (Of course “soon” is a relative term.) 🙂

Summer Hiatus

kanniduba4 Comments

So, this will be our view from the deck of our vacation house for the next week.  🙂  (Photo courtesy of the realty company.)

We never take two vacations in one year, but this year my parents rented a house on the beach and invited my sister’s family and my family down for the week.  We’re almost all packed, and I even managed to consolidate enough that we won’t need a U-Haul after all!  We did have to break down and finally buy one of those roof bubbles though…I feel thoroughly uncool now!  (Not that I felt all that “cool” before…)  Driving a minivan is one thing, but driving a minivan with a roof bubble brings us to a whole new level!  Ah, well. 

So, you won’t see me for a week.  I’ll be (hopefully) enjoying a little relaxation (with two one and a half year olds in the house, I’m not sure how much “relaxation” we’ll be getting…but I’m an optimist.)  My camera is charged, and two 2GB SD cards are reformatted and emptied, so hopefully I will have lots of photos to share when I get back. 

I can hear the waves and chocolate macaroons calling to me from here!  Have a fantastic week everyone!  Load my comments with fun stuff for me to come back to.  😉

Vacation!!

kanniduba3 Comments

So, today is the first day of summer vacation!  School is over, the sun is shining, plans are made, goals are set…or not.

Having been a teacher, my natural biorhythms are strictly connected to the school calendar.  Through school, through college, then through my career, September, not January was the beginning of the year, and June, not December was the end.  July and August have always been Twilight Zone months for me.  Suspended animation so to speak…a time to live differently, unscheduled and unpressured.  Even though I’m no longer teaching, I still feel the shift.  Along with the time shift, comes my natural tendency to want to set summer goals.  Although I quit that habit two years ago, I still feel the urge.  I used to make a list at the beginning of every summer…all the things I wanted to do.  The list would drone on and on, and It would look something like this:

*  picnics at the park

*  beach days

*  wash all the windows

*  clean out all the closets

*  read five novels

*  paint kitchen

*  finish scrapbooking

*  make a quilt

*  etc.

And then, the end of the summer would roll around, and I would have crossed off just a couple of things, berating myself for being so unproductive…feeling as though I had “wasted” two months of my life not accomplishing anything.  “Where did the summer go?”  I’d lament.  It was an all or nothing mentality, and it was very unhealthy.

So two years ago, I sat down to make my list—got halfway through, then crumpled it up.  I opted for an alternative.  I spent the summer jotting down each thing I DID accomplish on the list, as I did it.  We’d go swimming at the lake, I’d jot it down.  I’d wash the windows in one room, I’d jot it down.  I’d do five scrapbook pages, I’d jot it down.  By the end of the summer my list was extremely long and full.  I hadn’t actually accomplished more that summer than I had any other summer…It was simply a shift in consciousness…a recognition of the positives, rather than the focus on the negatives. 

So, if you are a summer list maker, I encourage you to make your list…only create it as the summer wears on, rather than before the summer starts.  You will surprise yourself with your list of accomplishments.

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