The rain is still pouring and will for the next few days at least. Hopefully after that though, it starts to warm up so that my wife feels that her summer break was a vacation. Without the warmth, it is just time off from work in her opinion.
Since we can't comfortably do too much outside, we are planning to have some time at home and perhaps a few little activities around other places. For instance, tomorrow we might go indoor climbing, as Smallsteps really enjoys it and my wife wants to give it a go again. I am not as keen, since I have to carry a lot of weight up the walls these days, and it is not as enjoyable as it once was. Still, it is exercise.
And the other task for tomorrow is to try and find a place that has raw tuna, as Smallsteps wants to give it a go. Her favourite food most of the time is sushi, but they usually use salmon as the fish here, which she likes but wants to expand her palate. It has taken her a long time to start to try new foods and she is really trying to push herself, even when she doesn't want to.
And I have a couple of my own activities on the list for this week. Since the girls are watching Master Chef Australia, we have our freezer and chest freezer full of random foods and I want to have a "challenge" to cook some of it up so it doesn't go to waste. I don't think the girls are very interested, but maybe we could end up making something fun together. It definitely won't be restaurant quality, but it might be edible enough.
The other task would be to clean up our kitchen cupboards and organise them, which I think goes hand in hand with the cooking challenge. Kitchens should be functional and I have designed ours to be, but when things get put in the wrong place, bit by bit it all kind of gets out of order and loses function. Especially, my wife is terrible at putting things where they belong and as long as it is out of sight, it is good enough for her. *Until we need that thing and it could be anywhere.
Holidays should be a time to relax, but they are also an opportunity to organise life a bit better also, so that the rest of the year outside of holidays is easier. Many people often say they don't have time for this and that, when if they were to zoom out and look at the way they organise their time and space, there is actually a lot of potential. Normally though, we are zoomed in, focusing on the thing that is right in front of, the problem we have, and dealing with it without thinking about the repercussions. The repercussions of having things out of place has a knock-on effect, as does having them in the right places.
Right time, right place.
It is an old saying that talks about luck, but change the perspective a little bit and think about it in terms of how we design our environment and it takes on a new meaning. When the time arises, what you need is in the place it should be, facilitating faster responses and better results - with a lot less stress. This doesn't mean that we can plan for every eventuality, but taking away the friction of daily life makes the unexpected, much easier to deal with as there are more likely the resources and bandwidth to handle them, without having the hurdles of daily life to deal with as well.
Vacations are also for having fun, relaxing and spending time together - but what I find interesting at least, is that spending time organising life a bit can do all three of those things. It doesn't mean that is all we must do on vacation, but spending a few hours here and there will go a long way to making the other activities more valuable too. Free time is easy to come by, but we don't seem to value it until it is earned.
And rainy weather is perfect to earn at home.
Taraz
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