You call this a vacation? Part I

I realized yesterday, as I madly dashed about, running errands and going to the doctor, that I am not on vacation. I have really signed up for a week of stay at home motherhood. I had better keep my "market work" because that job is less physically strenuous than SAHM. It pays better, too.

I had even prepared for my "vacation" by doing 6 loads of laundry, precooking meals and getting the garden in a reasonable condition on Friday and Saturday. Additionally, the cleaning lady had left this house in ship-shape last Thursday.

Where did the time go?

In the morning, Iris and I decided to tackle her neglected photo album. My mother in law had repeatedly asked the whereabouts of Iris' photo album. She pointedly told me that she had made albums for all three of her children. It is not that I don't want to do it. I love shopping for scrapbooking supplies. I love collage. (Everything I made in my high school and college art classes turned into a collage.) I blame lack of time and more pressing priorities.

Previously, Iris had already scrapbooked her daycare years. Next, she wanted to commemorate her two years in Montessori school. We looked through the photographs and Iris asked why they were all baby pictures. I told her that her Montessori years were all digital.

We went to the Windows-based computer and cropped and tuned the pictures we wanted using Picasa. Then we exported them to a "printme" folder that I made on the desktop. (If you don't export them, the changes you made and see on the screen, do not appear on the transferred file. Don't ask why.) Finally, we uploaded them to Costco's photocenter. I promised Iris that she could have a Costco hotdog for lunch when we picked up our photos. (Note to self: I can delete the photos in the printme folder now.)

All this digital picture tuning and uploading took some time and Iris lost interest. She retreated to her bedroom with the riveting book, "Little House on the Prairie".

As long as we were out, we ran other errands. I needed some supplies for the Mickey Lawler Fabric Landscape Painting class and the on-going 5S (Seiri and Seiton again) project. After Costco, we visited Staples and Home Depot. Iris had also outgrown the dress patterns and we needed to stop by Joann's to get larger ones. Yipes! Do not let a girl with no concept of sewing and scheduling difficulties near the pattern books.

Then, since we were already at Joann's, the pollen was flying and my immunologist was on the way home, we stopped for allergy shots. It was 4 PM by the time we got home. We both ate a snack and I realized she was due for Tae Kwon Do at 5 PM. She didn't want to go. I made her go. A whole lotta details were omitted here.

Class began and ended late. I used that time to show off the movie project (more on that later) and to compose a to do list for "family work". Yipes! It was 6:30 PM before we got home. Mark had just finished cooking salmon, rice and asparagus for dinner. My hero.

We did not resume the scrapbooking until after dinner and bathing. We worked from 8:30 to 11:15 PM. Mark conked out and Iris was at the end of her tether. But, I just wanted that sucker to be done. I found these two organizational products, bought at Target and Costco respectively, very useful.


I put Iris in front of the TV today so I could do a little writing and computer work. We may not get to the Getty Brentwood center until Friday.

My to do list includes life maintenance stuff like catching up on filing, rebalancing our portfolio, filling out medical and childcare flexspending reimbursement requests and medical coordination of benefits forms. (I am insured from both my employment and my spouse's employment, which is great in theory; but the paperwork is appallingly complex.) This stuff, like brushing and flossing, is not so much fun. But it must be done or the market will rebalance for us like we painfully discovered in 2000. ;-)

You call this a vacation? Part II