Summer Vacation?

Always, I look forward to the beginning of summer vacation.  I get sooooooo.... tired by the time the school year ends.  The end of the year, well in fact, the whole cumulative effect of teaching through the year, leaves me worn out and spent.  So.  The coming of summer "vacation" seems like a gift, and a welcome bit of respite from the intensity of my working life.

Except.

Except that there are so many projects that I put off as I go through the school year.   There are so many bits and pieces that get delayed "until summer."  The first few days and weeks of my summer "break" are always filled with the kind of time consuming, labor intensive projects that I'd probably do bit by bit through the year, if I were here everyday all day.  The fact is that I'm not...  Here.  I am there in my classroom with my kids, and there are things around the house that necessarily go on hold until June arrives and I can get to them. 

So, now it is June.  I am "off" from school, and there is time for me to focus on the pure and simple brute effort that causes organization and tidiness to occur.  Yesterday, I worked on the kitchen pantry, and today -- the garage.  Our small condos don't have a lot of storage space, and the garages become the primary space for storing our stuff. 

I know that this is the mundane and probably boring detail of our day-to-day lives, and that it is of very little interest to most people, but it is what it is.  I am foolishly satisfied with the results of my labor when it looks like this.  Even without before pictures, I hope it seems clear to those who might care, what I've achieved in these first days at home.  Here you go -- my garage and my kitchen pantry...

swan