Summer Vacation 2025 - Week One - Dead inside

Before the kids got out of school I was telling pretty much everybody that asked how I was doing that I was feeling really burned out. 

I was really looking forward to our vacation in Yellowstone. That was what I needed right? A weekend away, camping in my favorite place. I would come back so relaxed and ready to start summer vacation. 

So imagine my surprise when I came back from Yellowstone feeling just as burned out as before. 

And now I had to go back to work and catch up after being gone for three work days. I was not relaxed. And I was not ready. 

Also I was supposed to provide my kids with lots of activities and things to do to get summer off on the right foot. But they weren't exactly relaxed or ready either. 

Part of the problem was that our trip to Yellowstone had involved some pretty intense problem solving. But even we didn't have car trouble I think we still would have come back tired. We'd just packed so many (awesome) things into that trip.

Looking back I think what I really needed was a weekend to decompress from the school year. Getting four kids ready for school at THREE different schools is not exactly easy. I did it every day, but that doesn't mean it was easy. It would have been better if we'd just stayed home and slept in every day of the weekend. 

So I went around that whole week feeling completely dead inside. Brandon was feeling it too. Every conversation we had felt like an argument. Even if it was totally benign stuff like, "do we have milk?"

So this recap is full of all the things I did while trying to not have a mental breakdown after my vacation. 

Tuesday was full of so many things. When we'd found out that we might be stranded in Yellowstone I'd had to make a whole list of people we'd have to contact to let them know we wouldn't be there. But fortunately we did make it home so fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) we did have to go.

Thankfully I had the sense to NOT plan to be at work that day. I'd told everyone not to expect me until Wednesday. So I had some time to oversee laundry, getting some things put away, and taking the kids to their things.  

First up was a volunteer training for Charlotte and Lydia at a horse therapy place. I dropped them off for the two hour training on how to be a side walker. I came back home and picked up Veronica. We did some quick grocery shopping to get more food in the house and then I went back and picked up the girls. They hadn't loved the training (they want to ride horses, not walk along side them.)  But they were willing to give it a try. 

Later that afternoon I took Derrick to his orthodontist appointment. He's become really good at putting on his rubber bands every night. He's supposed to wear them all day too - but that's too much of a sensory issue for him. So he just wears them at night. 

And that evening I had bunco at my friend Lindsay's house. Bunco was so fun. Even when I'm dead inside it's still great to get together with a bunch of ladies. I actually had a pretty lucky night - until I got stuck with like 7 losses in a ROW. It was terrible. The chair I was sitting in was kind of low and I just felt trapped in that tiny chair. Other people were rolling buncos within seconds of the round starting and so sometimes I didn't even have a chance to touch the dice. I think I ended up with like 15 losses. I've never had that many losses. 

In other news here is one of my flower pots with flowers that are actually growing. 

And here is the lovely yellow rose bush in all it's glory. I love this thing so much. 

Even though I wasn't feeling great I still really loved my garden. So on Wednesday morning I woke up at 5:30 with Brandon's alarm and went to work on this front garden bed. I pulled out the logs and then remembered that I should take a before picture. 

I also took a picture of these irises because they were pretty. 

I spent a lot of time pulling out grass and digging up all the bulbs that were in this bed. When everything was clear I rolled the big stump over to this bed. I wanted it to be in a spot where it was really prominent. 

It's kind of hard to see, but I also transplanted a little tree. It's been growing up against the front of the house for a few years. It's just a little volunteer so I was just watching it to see what it would do. Now it's getting bigger and I don't want it close to the foundation. So I dug it up and moved it to this bed. 

ALL the dirt fell off it's roots when I moved it so I was a little freaked out by that, but I watered it really well when I put it in the ground. I was fully expecting to come outside and find it dead the next day, but it did well and is thriving in this spot. 

Lydia had finished another painting. It's called the Crystal Cave. 

Here's my rose bush again. 

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to still have my scripture study group this week. I thought about cancelling, but decided to go ahead with it. Jori was the only one who could make it. She has LOVED reading The Mother Tree. She's recommending it to so many people. 

In the afternoon I finally had to pull myself to work. Overall work was good, but I just felt so depleted inside. Also I don't love working in the afternoon. The whole day felt like an uphill slog. 

That night the kids had youth activities. I have no idea what they were.  I spent the evening putting the bulbs back into the flower bed. 

On Thursday morning I was back outside at like 5:30. (Brandon and I were still not communicating well so it was easier to just go outside right when he woke up than to try to have a conversation with him.)

Here are more irises looking beautiful

They look so good next to the catalpa tree. 

Here's a big fluffy poppy growing in the backyard. 

My friend Kerri works at the middle school office and still had like two more weeks of work. She'd been bringing her daugter Peyton to work with her, but Peyton needed a break. So she came over to our house for the morning. She helped me plant zinnia and cosmos seed in the front bed. And then she picked strawberries.  We also watered everything together. She was so excited about all the different fruits that I'm growing. 

At noon I dropped Peyton off at the school and then went to Ivan's office to finally get his billing stuff done for the week. I'd hoped to go on Wednesday, but there was just too much construction going on in front of his building. 

They are widening about a mile of Eastland. The road is mostly a two lane road, but it drops down to a one lane road on each side for about a mile. So now it's getting widened. It's going to be great when it's done, but until then it's a complete nightmare. At first traffic was still able to travel in both directions, but currently it's just a one way street. You can only travel south bound. Not north bound. This is the business access for the building where Ivan has his office. 

When I left I had to wait a minute for the south bound traffic to pass before I could get into that lane. So I was just kind of hanging out in the business access no mans land. So of course I took a picture. Here's the view looking North. 

And here's the view looking south. 

After I was done with the billing at Ivan's I went to Aspen Grove and did more billing. I normally love my job. It's fun for me to take care of all the insurance claims and payments. But I was still so burned out. I did my job, but I did no like it.

Back at home Lydia had been sewing like crazy. Jori had dropped off a bunch of unused fabric and old curtains and blankets and things. Lydia made a cloak. I texted this to Jori and she was so surprised at how quickly Lydia had made this. 

Here's Charlotte with strawberries she'd picked. 

That evening I got the garden bed all put back together with the decorative logs. This had been such an eye sore for weeks, and now it's my favorite bed in the yard right now. 

I made a path leading up to the stump. 

And later Charlotte made a little fairy door out of air dry clay. It's the cutest thing ever!

Here's the bed from a different angle. 

Charlotte was having fun in the backyard. She took her log cabin and put it in different spots and took pictures. She also used her little plastic deer. She has a lot of cute pictures. This is the only one I took.

Friday morning was one of those days where I really wonder who is in charge of making my doctors appointments. (It's me, but that lady does not make good decisions sometimes.) 

I had a mammogram at 8:00 and a dentist cleaning at 11:00. Like, What?

They actually were both fine. The mammogram was just because I'm 40 now. And it came back totally clear or whatever the word is for not suspicious. It was also fast. I was in and out of there in like 20 minutes. So I had time to go grocery shopping and get all the food home before I went to the dentist. 

The dentist was also fine. I have no cavities. Yay!

And then I went to work. Want to know what helps you enjoy work when you are dead inside?  Well it's NOT working on a Friday afternoon. That was not fun. 

But I finished up around 2:00 and came home and we were doing something fun. 

Dierkies Lake has been closed all spring because they've been widening the road to it and to Shoshone Falls. That was finally done and we could go. Derrick had been asking about this for days. 

We packed up hoagies for dinner and as soon as Brandon was home from work we headed to the lake. And guess what? I FINALLY felt a little alive again. 

The kids swam, Brandon went for a run, and I sat on the blanket and just did nothing. THIS was what I needed. Here I am in my new swimming suit. 

The kids swam for hours. The came out to eat, but that was it. Towards the end I went down and took some pictures. 

They all swam over to a rock in the water that they call "The Tooth."  They call it that because it has four points and is flat on the bottom. 

Here they are swimming some more. 

I also got a video of all of them going off the diving board. 

Like I said, I felt so much better at the Lake. I was like, "Oh this is what relaxing feels like."  Brandon came back from his run and we had an actual conversation that didn't end in a misunderstanding. 

We'd been talking about going to see Mission Impossible the Final Reconning. We'd thought about catching the matinee on Saturday. But the kids said they were done with swimming at 8:00 and there was a showing that night at 8:30. So we hurried home to drop off the kids and change our clothes. Then we rushed to the theater. I bought our tickets online as we drove there. We got there nearly right as the previews started. 

The movie was SO GOOD. It was such a good experience. There was a part where I was patting Brandon's knee and saying, "It's HIM!" when they brought back a character. There was so much action and everything was exciting. The movie is over 2.5 hours but it didn't feel that long. 

I loved it and it was the best thing for pulling me out of my slump. Between the lake and the movie I felt like I was back to myself again. 

Which was good because we were hosting a part on Saturday. We'd invited our theatre friends over for a BBQ. I'd planned this when the weather was still pretty cool each day. But this day was supposed to be 93 degrees. UGH. But we were doing it anyway. 

Brandon and I went to Costco and Winco to buy food and paper products when we woke up. Then we spent the rest of the morning tidying up things. Several years ago Brandon accidently scorched part of our wall with the BBQ grill. We finally hung up this shelf thing to cover the stain of shame. 

It's fun looking. 

At 5:00 people started coming over. Our big tree keeps things nice and shady after 5:00 so even though it was hot we at least had shade. Marianne brought popcycles so we had those while Brandon cooked the burgers. 

Here's Brandon's cooking set up. (The grill had been cooking slow so he got out the griddle to help things along.)

Marsha loved Kerri and laid down next to her. 

Brandon took my phone and took pictures so I'm actually in a picture for once. 

It was so good to have our theatre friends over. We've missed everyone. 

This really is an amazing group of people. 

Around 8:30 we moved over to the fire pit. Veronica lit a one match fire and earned a pocket knife. 

We had a great time talking around the fire with Kerri and Nate and Sarah and Madsen. 

I'm trying to think if I have any memories of Sunday. It was June 1st. It was nice to finally make it to June. May had felt very long. We went to church and I fell asleep in the lobby during Sunday School. After church I think we watched Sweet Tooth and finished Season 2. 

And that was our first week of Summer Break. It had ended on a good note, but wow, was it a slog to get there. 

Thanks for reading.