"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it." - Robert Orben
That's the kind of vacation we took this summer: a whole lotta nothing.
I took more than a week off of work and my husband took several days off. My son wrapped up an online course and driver's ed. All of which meant we had time; time to be together as a family.
We had vacation time.
We never once packed a suitcase, made a reservation or punched an address into GPS. We stayed home. Except we were always doing something ... and kind of never really doing anything.
Gosh, it was the best kind of break.
It started off bumpy with the AC going out my very first evening off. Not to worry. After one open-window night of sleep, we were back in business with a charge of coolant and the replacement of some compressor thing (I think?) ... all I know is, it cost waaay less than a new unit and so my biggest fear was allayed.
I stocked the kitchen and took the time because I had the time to cook at home - real meals and the good stuff, like turkey, pork roast, tacos, and lots of salads and desserts.
S'mores truffles? Yep. And yum, by the way.
I (meaning, my husband) tackled a paint project, giving new life to the tired 1990s honey pine end tables that are the right size for what we need, but were gashed by cat claws and generally beat-down-worn because we cannot have nice things. We just can't. That's who we are: people who can't have nice things. So we (meaning, I) bought expensive paint and we (meaning, my husband) revamped what we have.
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| Left has two coats of paint, wax and distressing (I at least did the distressing myself); the right one is the finished piece, using dark wax. |
My son would be going on a beach vacation with another family this week, and so we didn't have the totally made-up pressure on us to "make memories" for him. Instead, he spent time with friends, swimming, going to an indoor trampoline park, gaming and hosting them at our house. He had band practice and generally hung out and relaxed, sleeping in and eating a lot. Except for the times we did stuff as a family.
And we did quite a bit of that.
We walked the new pedestrian bridge that connects the neighboring community of Jeffersonville, Ind. across the Ohio River to downtown Louisville, Ky.
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| View of downtown Louisville from the pedestrian bridge. |
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| View of the pedestrian bridge from downtown Louisville. |
The bridge was an old railroad bridge that had been out of operation for quite some time. We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon stroll and hit a downtown Jeffersonville eatery that was delish and then visited some favorite shops as well.
We even got bored.
Not the awful, depressing kind of bored that makes you question the meaning of your life. No, this was the good kind of bored: the kind that makes you look around and ask, "Well ... what now?" And then figure that out - whether it's planting pumpkin seeds in the garden, watching a movie, binging on NetFlix, napping or reading.
Our Independence Day celebration was decidedly low-key. Our son had plans with friends and so it was just my best guy and me. We had dinner out and then hung out at home.
The temps had turned off cool late in the week, like a little gift just for me on my vacation. We pulled on hoodies and watched neighborhood fireworks beside a glowing fire on our patio.
Gosh, it was romantic.
And a little redneck.
Seriously, how much do these families spend on fireworks?
Anyway ...
We did venture out of the area to Indianapolis to visit friends, and the next day to Evansville to visit family.
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| The Ruins at Holiday Park, Indianapolis. Do you recognize them from the movie The Fault in Our Stars? I don't because I haven't seen the movie. I have it on good authority (teen girls). |
And on Monday, I was back in the office.
My return to work wasn't filled with the kind of dread one might associate with getting back into the old routine after a break. I had a great time off. I was rested. Happy. Content. My heart was glad for the time with friends and family. I was appreciative of all we did so close to home and appreciative of all we didn't do (pay for a hotel, argue in the car, eat out every meal).
All that appreciation kind of rubs off and makes you appreciate other things, like having meaningful work to do and a place to do it.
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