I am back from two weeks’ holidays.
I honestly can’t remember the last time Groom-boy and I had two consecutive weeks off together. I think it was…never?
It was almost more time than I knew what to do with.
During the first week you may remember we took a road trip to southern Ontario and visited friends in Toronto before moving on to experience the wonders of modern-day Niagara Falls.
It was a long drive home. I like to call it the “Cross-Southern Ontario Public Bathroom Tour Summer 2012.” So many bathrooms. Some were nice. Some…not so much.
We got home on the Thursday, had a whirlwind visit with a friend near Ottawa on the Friday and then spent Saturday preparing to go to a nearby cottage for a week.
The cottage week promised to be more sedate. The plan was that while the kids and I did the swimming, canoeing, fishing thing, Groom-boy would take the opportunity to paint at home. He joined us later each day and we all slept in a fume-free environment.
We settled in and I made every overture I could think of to ease my excitable soul. I still felt wound up.
I texted a friend. “I am sitting at the cottage with nothing to do but nothing…and I can’t relax. Aaargh.”
He reminded me it takes time to relax. Took him three days when he was on vacation. I picked up my book and started practising.
Monday featured an unexpected trip to the orthodontist for Boychild, but we dealt with that lickety split so as to not miss too much lake time.
I woke up Tuesday and lay in bed for a bit fretting about the things I was neglecting while on vacation, such as the spring cleaning from 2008. Nevertheless, I gamely gathered my book and my sunscreen and perched on the deck while the kids played.
That night I hauled out the laptop (portability!) and spent a couple of hours catching up on some work. That seemed to do the trick because by Wednesday I felt as if a weight had lifted.
I was getting the hang of the relaxing thing! Yay! There was no travelling to do, no orthodontists to visit, no public washrooms to explore and the book I was reading was really, really good.
Besides, Boychild had a friend come to play that day and his mom brought donuts and a coffee when she dropped him off. She is awesome.
I could feel it. I was relaxing! And getting fatter! Oh, well….
Thursday was equally lovely. Girlchild had her best friend visit, so I helped them do some fishing and we looked for crayfish. You know, girl stuff. We also swam to the nearby raft.
Friday was a change of pace. I actually had to work – meetings in town all day. I guess having two consecutive weeks off is still a work in progress. Let’s call it part of transitioning back to work.
Groom-boy and the kids spent most of Friday at the cottage, but came into town at the end of the day. Groom-boy got back to painting bedrooms and the kids got a screen fix before we headed back to the lake.
More frolicking on Saturday and then all too soon we were starting to pack things up and prepare for the monumental pile of laundry that awaited.
If only we could bottle these vacations and carry them around with us for emergency use when the slogging gets tough.
The nice thing is I am actually ready to go back to work. It takes some practice, but apparently that’s the gift that two weeks off can bring!
Published in The Perth Courier, Aug. 30/12
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