Running On Empty

I tend to march through the year in sections or better yet in semesters.  A week off during the summer holds me until winter break and so forth.  I tend to find that as the next break is coming up my batteries run down.  They’re running really low at this point as can seen in my lack of writing here lately. 

If I hold my breath I think I can make one more week.  One more week until spring break for Matt and a weeks vacation for me.  It’s amazing what a week off will do for me however.  A whole week of eight or more hours of sleep each night.  A week filled with trout fishing, down time, naps and no corporate structure. While I hope for good weather I could care less.  I would fish in the rain at this point.

Can you tell I’m ready for a little time off?

We received exciting news on Friday.  The finalist list for the Georgia Governors’ Honors program was posted on Friday at 4:00.  I received a text message from Matt at 4:15 that he had been awarded a slot to attend the prestigious four-week program at Valdosta State University.  In fact not only did Matt make the final cut but his best bud William also had been selected.  This is a huge honor for both of them and will be a great highlight on any college application.  I am very proud and happy for both of them.  It’s starting to sound like it’s going to be a very quiet summer around here…

That’s okay though as I am continuing to redefine myself and live my life rather than merely live my Life Without Lisa…

Shopping That Doesn't Suck

only have so much to give…

I have a full time job and can only take a finite amount of time off from work.  So, I do as I always have and save my vacation time for family time.  Of course, these days that means I save my vacation for when my son is out of school.  With spring break coming up soon I let the kids know that I would be on vacation that week.  I think that Abby had a little trouble understanding the fact that I couldn’t take a week off for her spring break AND take a full week off for Matt’s spring break, which is several weeks later.  How I explained this to her was that she’s basically grown and I’m still raising Matt.  While I think she got that I don’t think that she liked it.  Heck, I wouldn’t have liked it either…  So, I burned a day of my highly valued vacation and surprised her with a day of shopping today.  I must say we had a pretty good time.  We were both in a good mood and anxiety free.  We found some pretty good deals, which made me happy, and we found some really cute stuff, which made her happy.

I think she gets that I only have so much that I can give.  She just wants her share and then some if she can wrangle it.  Again, I don’t blame her, I would too.  After all, she’s been through hell just as much if not more so than me.  So what the heck… A day of shopping and lunch with “Baby Girl” wont be available to me forever.  Not to mention, when you think you only have so much to give, if you will just dig a little deeper or think a little harder you usually find you DO have a little more to give.

I have finally finished turning my detached three-car garage into a shop and storage area.  Two of the bays are now dedicated to woodworking and projects of all kinds.  The third bay is dedicated to storage with one third of it turned into a badly needed “seasonal closet”.  I put the finishing touches on it this past weekend with five big shelves for tub storage and on the other side an area to hang clothes and such (note the handy before and after pictures).  We can finally get all those tubs of off season clothes, boxes of Christmas ornaments, camping and fishing gear and other things out of the barn.  It’s good to have this project being me.  At times I thought that I would never finish it.  This project has been moving at a snails pace for about a year and a half now.  I just gave it what I could when I could.  I would do a little wiring here and spread a little drywall mud there.  Sometimes I could devote days to it and sometimes I could only devote an hour or two to it.  My perseverance has paid off and I have accomplished what I envisioned and set out to do. I guess all I had to do was keep digging to find that I did have enough to get it done. 


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