A Change is as Good as a Rest

We don't usually take big vacations. For one thing, we can't afford to. Besides that, the last time I took a 10 day trip I came back to work and the unopened mail had been falling off my desk so my 2 Executive Directors thoughtfully put it all in a box for me! (This wasn't at my current non-profit, but a previous one.)

What I've found often works very well is to take anywhere from 1 to 3 days and combine them with statutory holidays or religious holidays. (One of the benefits of working for a religious non-profit is that you get religious holidays off without having to use up your vacation time!)

We're on our way to our rural home because we've taken Thursday, Friday and Monday off. Combined with the weekend and Canada Day on Tuesday that gives us a 6 day vacation, while not really missing a lot of work.

The thing about going to the house is that we're doing a lot of work there, so it's not so much a vacation as it is a change. I mean, my idea of a vacation is sitting around in the shade on a sunny beach with a cold drink, or sitting in front of a crackling fire in the fire pit as the sun goes down, or having a picnic by the river.

The reality is that most of our time is going to be spent painting our bedroom, removing the rest of the wallpaper from the 3rd bedroom, having construction debris hauled away and getting the plumbing issue fixed. We'll mow the yard with our push mower ("we" being a code word for Hubby) and see how the garden is doing.

But I also want to do those other things. The evening fire is easy. And we can go to the beach, although it's a 20 minute drive because I discovered the small lake 10 minutes away has leeches! (Can I just say, eeeeuuuww?) And I suppose we could do a picnic too, though I'm not sure we'll work it in this time.

The thing is, I always feel like I'm working. I go to the office, I take care of the girls, I have boxes and renovation projects going at both houses. I want to feel like I'm having a vacation even though I'm going to have to accomplish a bunch of tasks too. That's why I'm determined to also do fun things over the next few days.

So, where does this blog fit in? Well, I'm going to continue to blog to a certain extent while we're gone. After all, I enjoy writing and I have ideas for a couple of posts that connect to the house and our plans for the future.

If I could make the scheduling function work properly I could make sure there would be a daily post (except Shabbos, of course) but it's not working and I can't promise I'll make 4 trips into town just to get to the free wifi. So, there will probably be at least one day in addition to Shabbat when I won't post. But I might post 2 articles in one day too. You just won't know unless you come and check it out!