Vacation

Well, in two weeks it's back to school for the teachers. I've definitely gotten my summer's worth this year! I've been on five different trips away from home--whew. And some of them were strictly for fun, too. In the past I've felt like summer was when I got my "real life" back: I didn't have to get up and leave home and go to a job every day. I could stay in my own home, sew, clean, cook, take care of my kids, do service for others--all the things I did for the 18 years before I became an employee.

This year, something changed, however. Maybe it is because I've been an employee for almost as long as I was a mom at home; this will be my 15th year as a teacher. Maybe it's because I don't have kids at home--this year is the first time someone didn't come and live with us for any part of the summer. (sigh...) But this year I really felt like I was just "on vacation". That perhaps my "real life" is the life of a school teacher, and I was having a break.

Of course, it could also be that because I was enrolled in a college class all of June, and spent any time not reading, writing and studying for that, in preparation for our family reunion, that I didn't actually experience any time "off." Then in July, I traveled here and there and everywhere... So I've been vacationing during this Summer Vacation.

This week and next, I have no official duties for work, so I have a list. I've checked off parts of it too: go exercise every day; rotate the tires; move all the furniture and scrub the tile floors; organize the pictures and artifacts I brought home from the reunion. I'll go into my school next week for a day or two because I need to unpack my stuff in my new room (natural lighting!!!). But, even that will be okay, because I won't be on the clock yet. I'll still be ON VACATION.