I’m continually amazed at how long it takes to get ready for a trip. I often say it takes 2 wks to prep and 2 wks to recover. Certainly the main week everything gets done. But for unpacking, it takes a good 2 wks before every item is washed and put away.
For packing, it’s ideal if the clothes are all washed and the dishes all done. You want that favorite pair of pants or shirt. The next trick is getting the house ready for an absence. Can you time the food so you don’t throw anything away. What will we eat when we get back (since we always jump so abruptly into work with little time for shopping until 2 days later. Make you wait to the butter end to catch the last dish and piece of trash so it doesn’t grow mold. It kind of feels like keeping the house ready to be shown for buyers.
This leaving was compounded by having to get everything out of the living room. Kids and nature abhor a vacuum. It was fun to see how the kids filled the vacuum (mostly with stuffed animals). Empty shelves became cages for lost animals (think animal rescue). Piles of stuffed firmed on the carpet. Occasionally they’d line up and form a parade.
So one of my closing tasks was getting the munchkins to return all the toys I had painstakingly organized back into their room. The other was removing all the random spooge of living. The living room echoed when we left.
So where’s the fun? On Friday, I picked Sara up from school and we headed for the swimming pool. It had been a stormy day. We had the pool to ourselves. It was the first time we swam for a few weeks. After a 5 day cold with little exercise, it was luxurious to be in the pool and float full length in the hot tub. Another plus was our pool was finally warm. The girls had a blast playing and swimming and jumping. Later, in the locker room, they played hide and seek. It was an unusual circumstance that they were playing when I was dry and there was no one else in the dressing room. It seemed to be ok to snap a few shots of a game they’ve played for years.
