Adam suggested that I write this post about our accomplishments this week, and I was thinking about writing about vacations. I’m so glad we’re on the same page!
We took this past week off work for our vacation. I’m not sure about him, but for me, the week prior was filled with co-workers asking me where we were going on vacation and funny looks when I said we were staying home to get some things done. We both work full time (and sometimes more) and we have a 4 month old puppy, so there’s not much free time…or when there is we collapse on the couch in exhaustion. With this lack of free time comes a long list of to do’s. Since we decided we weren’t taking what became a ridiculously excessive road trip this summer, we decided to take a week to work at home while Casey – the puppy – is at “boarding school” as I like to call it, with Nashville K9. For a couple of weeks prior, we wrote the list of things we wanted to accomplish while we were off work and puppyless. Now that it’s Sunday afternoon and we go back to work tomorrow, we’re as done as we’re getting for this week. 
This week we have:
- replaced an outside light fixture with a motion sensor floodlight
- installed a bug zapper
- fixed the back door latch (Casey’s going to be mad she can’t throw herself into it to open the door anymore)
- watered the lawn with weed killer
- round-uped the flower beds (the things what are not supposed to be there that is)
- scrapped peeling painted, primed, and painted the back door frame
- extended two downspouts (to prevent pooling water in the yard)
- sanded, primed, and painted the kitchen chairs (ok, 1 chair needs a 3rd coat, it’ll happen tomorrow)
- painted our “R” and prepped it for hanging (thanks MG#3 and Pop!)
- bought and installed a wasp trap
- changed the batteries in our smoke detectors (yes, we know we’re a little late)
- fixed the wall in the hall bathroom and replaced the shower curtain rod with one that screws into the wall (aka ensured we won’t have to do this again because the tension rod slipped down and peeled the paint)
- selected and printed pictures, purchased frames, and hung a picture collage in the kitchen
- bought and installed (yes, there are screws involved) a shoe organizer
- bought and put together deck furniture
- re-arranged our kitchen cork board (since it still had Christmas cards where they were put when the arrived)
- cleaned out Casey’s toys to get rid of things that are too small now (Doug’s pile is now larger, but is looking somewhat girlie)
- installed a printer
- organized both of our desks
- ran the speaker wire under the molding (rather than across the floor)
- set up blog page and started blogging
Now, this is a huge list and I’m sure I’ve forgotten something, as we did work for a week on this! We do still have a pretty big list to tackle, as this was about half of what we had down, but we made huge progress! We did hit a bit of a stall when Adam’s shoulder decided it didn’t want to play any more after scrapping the door frame and crouching under the console table to put the speaker wire under the molding, but I persevered and almost got the kitchen chairs painted (almost 3 years later, yes, this week was necessary because we do like to procrastinate). Adam’s better today and currently tinkering the the garage. We also decided that we should try to strip the legs of the kitchen table rather than painting them because the wood is really pretty, and worse case scenario – we’ll paint them to match the chairs (which were previously painted, several times, and from two different sets).
We’ll have more projects to come and more pictures to show soon. Casey comes home from boarding school next weekend, so we’ll have some things to say about her being home and her training then.
So, that is what we decided is our vacation this time around. What is a vacation? I think of it as something relaxing, calming, and restful, whether it’s at home or somewhere else. I did find that painting chairs, the door frame, and the R was nice, and we slept in and rested when we felt like it and didn’t get stressed that we weren’t going to get everything done (we knew that going in and started our “this isn’t going to get done this week” list on Wednesday). Because we have some of these projects done, and others further along, we’ll hopefully be less stressed over them later and not so overwhelmed by our list. That was our goal, and I think we’ve accomplished it!
I do miss the puppy though, I’ve been ready for her to come home for several days but – one more week until she does and a Willow House party between now and then! (Saturday, 2pm, our house, rsvp please)
