For my day job I’m a stay-at-home parent. It’s immensely rewarding, easily my favorite job ever, but it does only come with nine months of vacation. Of which there are only three weeks left. My how the time flies.

The next three weeks then are  mad-cap scramble to complete all of the many projects I’ve started over vacation, but haven’t completed. If pressed, I’d say my favorite hobby is to start projects. One of my wife’s hobbies then, is forcing me to complete projects. It’s a system that took many years to develop and formalize, and neither of us are really happy with it, but it’s workable, which is the important part.

So then I’m looking forward to paving a patio, some rudimentary landscaping, finishing a Tongo board, finally posting last fall’s garage sale leftovers on Craiglist, mowing my lawn for the first time, buying a mower to mow the lawn with, volunteering at the school’s Field Day, and getting as far ahead on Merunga as I can because this will be the first summer with a kid and a strip and I’m not sure how that balance is going to work.

I’m always a little sad to see vacation time winding down, however the excitement for the work season to start is that much more. The kiddo and I have a pretty good summer schedule, lots of playing, hanging out, taking dogs for walks, scrambing to clean up the house the last five minutes of everyday, wouldn’t change it for anything. It’s easily the best time of the year.