Home!

Since Thursday night, actually. We headed out the evening of Friday the 1st, got to my mother's the next day, went up to b's parents' the next Wednesday and the starting wending our way back home the next Monday, with stops in Lafayette and Columbus. It was fantastic. We went to the beach, made sand castles and had a cookout. Alec sat straight down in Lake Michigan and laughed with glee while the surf did its best to knock him over. We saw family and friends and watched our children play with their similarly-aged cousins. We enjoyed copious amount of vacation ice cream. We saw two movies in the theater (one with children, one without. Too bad we got home just before Harry Potter came out, because my desire to see Green Lantern in the theater was never that big). We slept and slept. A lot. One morning, we even didn't have to get up with our son when he decided 5:30 was a great time to be up for the day.

I'm not sure I can communicate what the vacation was like without talking about why I quit the online job. The shorthand version, of course, is that working 35 hours a week and homeschooling was slowly killing me. But that doesn't give the full flavor. I was busy with children all day, so I had to work late into the night. Then I had to get up with the children at a normal time most mornings. We couldn't do anything in the evening because I had to work. B had to do all evening childcare and I couldn't help, even when I wanted to. I had no time to do anything, because even when I had some spare time, I was completely bone-deep exhausted.

So almost three weeks later of not working late into the night every evening, it's hard to convey just how relaxing it has been. I'm feeling actual ambition again to get things done. Like finally cleaning up the basement (the fact we have houseguests coming in three weeks is also a good impetus for that). Or exercise, something that's fallen shamefully by the wayside in the past year. I'm also trying this new thing where I take care of things right away instead of letting them pile up. Like I immediately scrape off the high chair tray and wash it off instead of leaving it to fester on the counter, or put things away. Crazy!

I've been working on this post for four days, so maybe I should just post it and start slowly writing about other stuff tomorrow. Because I have time now to do that sort of thing. It's good to be home.