Not in the #Occupy sense, more in the keeping busy sense.

I’m trying to keep my mood up and level. Which is a challenge when I’m bored. Boredom = looking for trouble most of the time. Which is why I say that only boring people get bored because if I have any inkling of that feeling I go find something to do.

Which I’m trying to get healthier about as the years go by…

I can’t obsess about cleaning my house because my husband and children are so god damn helpful. The kids are not perfectly following all of their routines… instead they are chipping in to help with my chores way more than normal. I need to not be an asshole about this.

All of the stuff I will need to do for the house in terms of getting it ready to sell are… later and if I start fussing about it too soon I will drive myself crazy and end up starting to do the work myself because I won’t be able to handle waiting. I know myself. I can’t think about that project yet or I will damage my body trying to follow through on plans now when I really need to wait.

So I’m thinking about other things and making other plans because that seems healthier.

Stuff like planning for the next school year since we only have nine more weeks of this school year and the kids and I agreed to year round schooling for next year. We will only have a month off and I’d rather have my plans mostly in place by the end of the school year so I don’t have to spend vacation planning and getting ready. That would piss me off. I know it is the norm for teachers… but I have this time now and by then the fourth trimester will be over and I will not want to sit still to do more planning. I will want to be out in the garden.

That month of vacation will probably involve me spending all my normal academic/planning hours outside trying to get the garden to a better place for selling the house. The more established the plantings are when we list the house… the better. I’ve got some shit to do.

I am doing the shopping and preparation I need to do for summer/travel. I scheduled two trips. Because having stuff on the books helps keep me from feeling trapped. The first trip will be somewhat expensive: it’s an all inclusive in Mexico. The second is taking Sarah to Disneyland for her birthday. I bought into DVC for Sarah and her birthday trip so it seems like a good thing to revisit that again 8 years later. Sarah is my favorite person to go to Disneyland with. We have similar tolerances for crowds, distance, and time spent in the park. We like having a kitchen in our room because Sarah loves to cook to show us her love and I am ok with cleaning up after people who make me tasty food. She is so close with my kids. Even though she and I have had ups and downs… she has consistently shown up for my children. Almost 10 years into this parenting gig… Sarah is who she says she is. She is their Aunt and she takes that seriously.

I’m a huge nerd and I love that my second and third children will both be with their Auntie in Disneyland for her birthday before they turn one. She makes these trips magical and fun. Sarah just does Disneyland in a way that helps me feel safe. And once in a while she even brings her brother along and dude he’s fun in the parks. He runs off with the children to do silly things. I don’t think people are fun based on their willingness to do childcare for me. I follow along more slowly and do the silly things too… It’s about being willing to initiate.

I’m excited that I get to spend about 7 months showing Sarah menus and saying “Hm, should we add this to our itinerary?” This time I’m getting bold and looking further afield in the Anaheim area. What things could we potentially go get or have a nicer meal out…

I feel like I do owe my family the quiet, no other people, sitting and doing nothing experience they want. I keep them on a hamster wheel and they are all fucking exhausted. But I’m glad no one will begrudge me wanting to plan the trip with Sarah too.

And because of DVC and the kitchen… this week long trip won’t be that much money. The all inclusive isn’t cheap but it isn’t that expensive. And we don’t drink alcohol so we won’t be adding to our bill that way.

We will spend somewhere in the $7,000-$9,000 range for both trips. Mexico alone will be $6,000ish.

A bunch of that money will be for things like shoes appropriate to the conditions, hats that fold up + have a strap (kids outgrow theirs and my hats… are not in good shape any more), bathing suits that fit… So it is an extravagant amount of money but it will also help us in general this summer. I just…. might not get as much or as soon if not for the trip coming up.

I’m also thrilled about things like: putting a Disneyland trip on our calendar causes my children to take a deep breathe and say, “Ugh. We need to start training for the walking.” They know that we walk 6-8 miles a day when we are at Disneyland. I asked them, “Would that feel good right now?” They both adamantly stated that it would hurt so they are interested in planning out the exercise regime necessary to make it fun.

This may not be the best way to motivate fitness… but it is pretty effective for us. We are planning our year around this. (Eldest Child is about to graduate out of swimming class. She’s at the end of what they teach and that’s feeling really fun for her. Middle Child asked if they can drop gymnastics while we work on the walking great distances project. That means the kids will be doing three days a week of martial arts, plus MC would have half an hour a week of a swim class on top of walking a lot every day. I think it is both fair to drop gymnastics and it’ll save me $120/month. Sure.)

My kids have 0 interest in fitness for competition. Fitness so they can accomplish something, sure that makes sense.

I love my kids. I would have a hard time with a super competitive child. I’m grateful for the personalities my children happen to have. It isn’t that being competitive is always bad–it isn’t. But I would struggle to parent someone who was very competitive. That’s an evaluation of my own abilities and not a commentary on how awesome someone else might be.

What other things am I planning… I think that might be what I’m cycling between. School (the awesome part of home schooling is I get to plan something different every year), Mexico trip, Disneyland, and exercise for the year. 2018 is going to be a pretty ridiculously good year. And then the house goes on the market next year.

The kids are already suggesting stuff we really don’t want to pack and maybe we should just get rid of it now. So cleaning the house is going to be almost as much about thinning out our possessions as it will be cleaning this year.

Also: anyone want to come over to dinner and take away a few bottles of alcohol? We can’t drink it anymore…

I might long term have a bottle of whiskey that I can drink in the house but I doubt it. I can go out and buy a drink 3-8 times in a year and be as satisfied with alcohol as I need to be. Maybe we’ll still keep some wine around for cooking… but not much.

I didn’t expect to grow up and be quite this… weird. Tee totaler pot head. Sure, why not. Only I take pills so I don’t even smell like it much. Are you still a pot head if you don’t get the cloud of smoke making you smell like it?

Questions for the ages.