Back to it, picture taking, planning

For those of you still out on vacation, enjoy it to the max. It is downright difficult to get back to work after a couple weeks off. We are managing but it is too easy to get used to late mornings, unscheduled days, unlimited time with Mama and relaxing without the need to hurry anywhere. Boy, are those days gone quickly.


I do not know if it is the same for Cori with three young children. I suppose any outside help is help enough to ease the stress of being the only caregiver, diaper changer, booboo kisser, book reader, movie manager, etc. You get the idea. Getting home and everyone getting back into a routine might be more comfortable but the free spending, the unique activities and the time with friends and family that the holidays afford is more fun in action than in retrospect.

I think Mama is going to have the film developed today and we will see if any of the pictures came out. I am hopeful we salvaged some of the images for posterity. I have come to the conclusion that every event is a “once in a lifetime” event – or at least should be treated as such. We can never recreate the moment in the exact way we just experienced it. We can get close and reinforce the memories of a given event year after year, but each one will be unique.

That is why I rarely argue with Mama’s insistence on getting pictures at every opportunity. Years from now we can relive a part of each of those moments with the memories a picture can generate. Last week Grandma was rummaging through pictures taken when she was a small child. Many of the people in those pictures are gone now, but it was fun for her to remember. We had to listen to each memory in several variations with spiritual summaries attached, but it was fun for her. Grandpa has no pictures from his youth and he is a little sad about that, but there is no remedy for that lack.

My point is, with all the grumbling that took place at my Mom and Dad’s last weekend, most will be glad we took the time to take a picture. I know my parents will be. With the children present, the grandchildren present, the great-grandchildren present and the visiting friends all captured on film, it will serve as a marker in our family history – and that is a good thing.

One of the interesting things in starting a new calendar year is the juggling that goes into planning for the year. One of the most difficult things to plan has always been vacation. I told Mama I would like one year to take a vacation that did not require 3000 miles to be driven; one where I did not have to work the day before and the day after the vacation. Those days may be coming, forced on us be the economic times we see ahead, but having to come to work to rest up is wearing me down a bit.

So, when Mama gave me her proposed itinerary for May and June of this year I about fell over. Two graduations and a wedding are scheduled and none of the events are close to us. Andrew’s graduation is only six hours away, but Chase’s graduation and Brittany’s wedding are both significant road trips for which Mama has two week planned – each. According to her schedule I will work eight says in the month of June. I need 25 days of vacation and about $4000 to meet the objectives of her plan. Boy, does she shoot for the moon.

I am just glad I have enough advance notice to work it down to a reasonable plan.