Summer vacation reflection and “not easing back” to routine

One week of nature centered trip was the perfect way to end this summer break. Although I worked 3 weeks while we were in DC, the change of routine and scenery tricked my mind to think I had longer vacation time. And the week of pure nature, often time without signal, made the time felt slower and forced all of us to be in the moment without millions thoughts in mind. I didn’t bring journal to both trips and surprisingly I didn’t miss it. I would use apple notes to write down few reminders and delete it once I’ve done them.

Traveling to Sao Luis was not comfortable as the hotels were rustic, the food not my liking, the car rides were long, walking in the sand made my back ache, and I didn’t run for an entire week. Yet, the wow effect of what was in front of our eyes made it all worth it. I’m still lingering the feeling I had sitting in front of the dunes and lagoons, with strong breeze in my face, wondering how this could be real. At the same time, I was reminding myself to ignore the discomfort and need to fix it.

We arrived home Wednesday evening. Thursday we welcomed our new help as our full time help quit (she divorced) and I’ve decided to not hire another full time help anymore, but to have 3 days help per week. The lady who will come twice a week is the wife of our gardener and I really like her work. The reason for this decision is that I don’t want to deal with all the paper work and drama that we had. And because I found a solution for taking care of the cats while we travel which was one of the reason we hired a full time help. I found a professional cat sitter service!!! And it has been an amazing experience this time. We had first meeting before Ed traveled to introduce her to the cats, showed her where are the things and their particularities. She also had a long list of questions for us which she wrote them down. She came to visit the cats everyday and sent me a detailed report, pics and videos, including number of pee and poop. The same sitter will come for all our travel days. What a relief I found this service. Without the need of cat sitter, 3 days a week help may work for us as we need mostly cleaning and laundry.

Which also means I jumped right into meal prep on Thursday. I may have over done it as I ended the day exhausted. I made:

• Marinated chicken
• Marinated BBQ pork ribs
• bolognese sauce
• yogurt
• chia strawberry jam for crepe
• Chicken milanesa
• tofu
• burger patties
• pumpkin soup
• cooked beans

I felt accomplished but I was EXHAUSTED the next day, to the extend I thought I was getting sick. Fortunately after a rather chill day, physio visit, and early bed time, I felt almost back to normal on Saturday.

Let me show you my homemade tofu! I am so proud of it!

Friday dinner for the girls: spaguetti pizza!

Yes, girls also jumped back to routine and had two training already

Saturday was another meal prep morning and I made and freeze curry chicken with rice, wonton, soy bulb cakes using leftover from tofu, and made burger buns. I took a nap after lunch and found the girls doing mani session which reminded me I badly needed it one too. I went to the salon and left with soft and light pink mani and pedi.

Sunday, back to normal routine, long run, call to my mom, welcome our new Filipina helper! (her English made me nostalgic of our manila time, I think we will keep her just to listen to her English). And I made pita bread fill with roasted pork ribs, a corn/tomato/cucumber salad, and a quick sauce made with ricotta cheese with herbs and yogurt, which they absolutely loved!

final update: we got a HAMMOCK!!! yes! I had to get one after being on one for a week and loved it! I’ll have to try it few more times before report back! 🙂

Tomorrow everyone’s back to work/school.

We feel ready, mentally, physically, fridge wise ready 🙂