The First Week of "Vacation"

School has been out just a week. I'm always amazed at how difficult the transition can be. I've been pretty busy with all kinds of appointments: eye doctor, regular doctor, lab work, dentist, etc. and I treated myself to a massage. It's been crazy around the house too -- my husband's business involves a great deal of vehicle maintenance, and it's been time to get the oil and other fluides changed in 17 vehicles, get them all washed and cleaned, and all the other things that need doing when all of those vehicles are off their routes and on vacation also. Most of this maintenance occurs in our yard, so it's been a busy place! It's also hard to sleep in when you're used to getting up at 4:45 am for half the year, and right now it's really light at that time anyway. BUT ......... and it's a big one . .. . . . the PRESSURE is off! It doesn't matter that we got home from exercise class at 7 pm and haven't had dinner yet. So what if I didn't get to bed til 11 pm - I don' t have to be anywhere at 6:30 in the morning. I don't have to be energized and upbeat all day, trying to motivate 12 year olds all day. It's VACATION!! It's really hard to describe the weightlessness of not being in school. The intense pressure I feel all year to be moving on to the next thing, the relentlessness of my daily schedule is gone. I feel almost giddy with freedom!

Of course, there are a ton of things I want to accomplish this summer --- like clean my house. We are pack rats and not very well-organized ones either. I've already accomplished one organization task. I turned my piles of yarn stash into 2 organized see-through plastic tubs of yarn, and I actually know what I have now. I also went through my tub of needles and things, and organzed those. I spent a day catching up on bookkeeping tasks and balanced 2 months of personal checking and the usual monthly business bookkeeping. Not bad for a week's vacation. This coming week my husband and I want to turn our TV/family room into an office we both can use, and turn our basically unused living room into the TV/family room. He's not quite convinced we should do this, but my take on it, is why not. It sure beats using the dining room as his office. We are blessed with a large house; we may as well use it efficiently!!

I have been reading up a storm this week too --- lots of very light, easy fun fiction. I requested a bunch of books from the library and 3 of them came in already waiting on the kitchen table. I can recommend a couple of good reads: Barbara Delinsky Looking for Peyton Place, and Maeve Binchy Whitethorn Woods. I have a bunch of Earlene Fowler to read too.

And finally, the knitting goes on. The Lace Shawl/Stole is still on the needles and is driving me nuts. I have knitted about 50 inches - about 10 more to go. And I still find myself with too many stitches, not enough stitches or on the wrong row. I seem to have a pattern of knitting about 5 inches without a hitch, and then the next 2 inches are hell. I'm looking ahead to the next projects -- a baby blanket, another summer Bistro Shirt and perhaps some unravelling of a couple of previous winter sweaters that are way too big for me now --- down 33 lbs since January, and still going.