Saturday, July 11, 2009

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted.....

When I was a kid, our family had a motto: "Why waste a perfectly good vacation having fun when you could be working?" We usually did end up working, whether it was one of my parents taking "vacation" from their job or it was a calendar holiday (Thanksgiving and Christmas being the exceptions). My Dad had a perpetual to-do list in his head, and when vacation time came around one of those projects was tackled. We only went on a real vacation twice (that I can remember): one was to the Ozarks when I was about nine years old (had a great time but got a horrible sunburn) and the other was to Nashville when I was in high school (I think my folks had fun even if I didn't). I know my family took trips to South Dakota and Wisconsin, but I was really little at the time and don't remember them.

Anyway. The point I'm getting to is that I just spent three vacation days working around my house. Mary was away at diabetes camp, so I took advantage of that time to clean up and clear out. I got alot accomplished:
  • I thoroughly cleaned Mary's room, and moved alot of her toys to the basement. I also threw out a big black plastic garbage bag full of junk, mostly paper and cardboard. This kid never throws ANYTHING away.
  • I cleaned and sorted through the east half of the basement. I shuffled stuff around so that the northeast room, which used to be storage, is now set up for the girls to recreate in. They had been using the "sewing" room (aka the fourth bedroom) but I cleared all of that stuff out and took it downstairs. Hannah, bless her heart, help me carry stuff, and she sorted through all of the toys and put everything back in order. I couldn't have done the basement without her help.
  • I turned the sewing room back into the sewing room. We had been using the dining room, but once the sewing room was cleared out I took all of the sewing stuff upstairs and got it arranged and ready. Now I can help the girls tackle their projects.
  • I turned the dining room back into the dining room. Now all is right with the world.

In clearing out stuff I boxed up all kinds of things that hadn't been used in a long time and gave them to Brianna Scott, a young lady in our church who is holding a garage sale at the Novak's house (Steve and Corie Novak are youth sponsors) to raise funds for a local homeless shelter. The timing couldn't have been better. I was able to get rid of stuff without Mary raising a fuss over what was going, and I didn't have to store the stuff somewhere, either. If Brianna's happy with the donations, I'm happy because she helped me clear out my house. Thanks to Brianna, Steve and Corie!!! Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!

Meanwhile, Carl and Hannah went to pick up Mary from camp this morning. I didn't go along because I had an extremely important meeting at church, but Carl called a little while ago and said that they should be home in about an hour. They were just finishing up "lunch" at the Dairy Queen in Toledo (the lucky skunks) so I had better go prepare for the inundation of dirty camp laundry.

I mean, why waste a perfectly good Saturday having fun when I could be working!