Vacation

We're back from vacation. I have to say, thanks to TV, movies, and fiction books, I always come back expecting to be a new person. I want to be changed and ready to take on life. Too bad that's not the way it usually works. Life goes on without and we just have to rush to catch up. For example, the wind and heat were pretty back while we were gone and my flowers are hurting. I will need to plant some new annuals and work hard at hopefully bringing a few potted plants back to life after a rough week. Usually this would throw me towards a complete freak out, but for some reason it hasn't. Yes, I'm sad about my flowers. I spent a good deal of time with them. It was disappointing to see all the weeds and see that our lawn had not been taken care of while we were gone, but that's alright. I will get to it tomorrow.

This vacation was one of the first ones where I didn't really know what was going to happen and I was strangely okay with that. It could be the Holy Spirit at work in me, working on my Martha tendencies and teaching me to have a Mary spirit. I knew we were heading to St. Louis, seeing family in Missouri, catching two Cardinals game, meeting up with Bryant's parents and brother, and maybe stopping to see my family. I made the reservation only a week before we left for our hotel one night and Bryant's parents took care of the other reservations and getting us the baseball tickets. We called a friend at the beginning of the week to see if we could crash at their place after our time in St. Louis. They happily said yes and planned a bbq with some of Bryant's high school friends. We made it to my parents house and I was able to relax and even get all of Martin's laundry done. I came home with one suitcase full of clean clothes. I even managed to put it all away before I gave Martin his bath. Hallelujah. I guess I do have a Mary spirit and she is sometimes happy to just let things happen. We said over and over how much fun we had. We didn't plan anything except the baseball games in St. Louis and had a great time exploring Grant's Farm and eating Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. The Cardinals won both games and Martin behaved wonderfully. I think part of Martin's good behavior was that we were not stressed out. We've all been to St. Louis before and we've seen a lot of the sights. We don't have an agenda. We didn't need to see certain things because we might never come back. We're Cardinals fans. We'll always come back.

I do have a small list I made in the car, but since I was able to get almost all of my other things done before we left I feel like I have a handle on things. I'm going to continue spring cleaning. I have renamed that "one year anniversary" cleaning. I think since we've lived here a year it's time to clean it out. I had a nice surprise when I walked in the back "mud room" area. I forgot that I had totally scrubbed it down. One of our trash bags had leaked the week before we left and I got that place spiffed up. It was so nice to walk from that to another almost clean kitchen. I'm feeling pretty relaxed if you can't tell! I hope the Mary spirit in me continues to balance out my Martha personality. It's nice!