Have you ever noticed that when you come home from a vacation you have to do all the work from when you were gone, so you’re playing catchup for a couple days, or a week, depending on how long you’ve been gone. That’s how I have felt this past weekend and beginning of this week. Everything I had scheduled seemed to catch me off guard with it’s timing because of everything else I was trying to get caught up on. Consequently, this past 5 days has been lively to say the least!
I do however, love to get back into my routine. I enjoy the break from it on vacation, but when I get back, I am ready to jump back in and start getting my time organized again. Weirdly enough, I was excited to jump back in to waking up at 5:15 to teach early morning seminary. I do really enjoy the youth I get to work with and my team teacher, so it makes it fun, even if it is earlier than I usually care to wake up. I also enjoy getting my house totally clean. My husband and my boys did a great job picking up after themselves and cleaning up after meals and things, the dishes always got done, and big messes got cleaned up. But a lot of the deeper cleaning needed to be done when I got home. I am grateful for their thoughtful care of our home though, it made it nice to walk in to our home after a long day of flying, and not be met with a huge mess.
One of the really exciting things that was supposed to happen while I was gone, but really, I’m glad I was here to watch, was posts for my new greenhouse were put in. We are building our greenhouse out on the edge of our swamp so it gets a lot of the sun, especially in the spring and fall. Because it’s in a swamp however, we had to have 15 foot long metal pipes called pilings driven into the ground rather than putting in a traditional foundation. So the pile driver came yesterday and got that all done! On to building, but I don’t know when that will start, there’s a lot of other people on my husbands list as well. My husband and boys took great care of my little plant starts while I was gone, making sure the light got plugged in every day, and keeping them water. When I got home they were growing and happy. All of this makes me super excited about summer!
While I was on vacation I was able to paint almost every day. At home it seems like I go days without ever creating anything, whether it’s painting or drawing or sewing. I enjoyed the ability to paint so much while I was there, and know that it’s just about putting my mind to it every day at home. I decided when I got home I needed to work on something creative everyday, or as many days as possible every week. So, even through the lively week we have had I also was able to paint a lupine flower. It was a nice mental break each day that I sat down to paint, and I love the opportunity to do so. We’ll see how my desire to do it every day works out, but for me, it doesn’t need to be painting per say, it can be anything creative. I have also noticed that as the daylight increases, so does my energy levels and my drive to do more with my time each day. I feel like I have it all year long, but at least this year, I have noticed an increase this spring. I am grateful for the renewed energy that visiting my family gave me. I am grateful to be home and spring to be fast approaching here in Alaska, and I look forward to the many lively adventures that the next few days and weeks hold!
Stephanie Richey Art 
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