We need a vacation ... and yet here we are.

Will and I were talking yesterday that we both are ready for a vacation except for a couple of pressing matters: money and time. Of course we usually have one or two of the three: money, time and need. Mostly we find need at the top of the list. Unfortunately, with my job the time is nearly impossible to get. I am a rural route substitute at the Tomah Post Office. I substitute on all 7 of our rural routes, which is probably why I'm ready for a vacation. In plain numbers it is overwhelming so I try not to think about it, but I will type it for you to let you see why I am brain dead most of the time.
7 routes with a total of well over 5000 boxes, each with it's own 5 digit address and at least 1 person living there. Most times 3 or 4 names are in each box. It's a big joke around our house for Will to meet someone and come home and ask me where they live. Cute parlor trick. Add that to the 3 routes that I learned here in Warrens and it's quite a big chunk of junk floating around in my head.
The only problem is that when I am gone from work they are short handed. I will be glad when I get my own route and my being gone will affect nobody except my own sub. Will and I are both looking forward to me getting a route of my own.
We are hoping to be able to take a trip to Walt Disney World again in the next couple of years. One of the best times we have ever had was our last trip with Will's parents. We just loved watching them walk hand in hand with our kids. We had to stick a kid with each of them otherwise they would be off and running and none of us could keep up( and I'm not talking about the kids taking off and running). There is something about Disney that "is" magical. It was great for us all to be away with no phones, errands or jobs. We could just devote all of our time and energy to being together. You know how it is when you go and visit people at home. It's great, but routine life seems to creep in on you. A phone call here, running to the store there, practise with the group, meeting that was set months ago. When you are away anywhere from everything else it is wonderful. I would highly reccomend it for everyone. Will and I said we needed to do that at least once a year. We kind of have this list in the back of our minds of places to go. We plan on taking at least one set of our parents with us to each destination, but you know how it is with best laid plans of mice and men. I am praying that we will be able to before the kids graduate.
As for my other "job" I am an executive officer (Secretary) on the Warrens Cranberry Festival Board of Directors . It is a huge undertaking and one that I enjoy more and more each year. We are just building a new site for the fest at cranfest.com. The fest is now 104 days away and things are starting to get busy. Our little town of Warrens is home year round to 300 or less people except during Cranfest. During Cranfest we see 150,000 or more over the weekend with over 1400 booths covering the entire town. It is a unique experience and has been going on for 33 years.
I don't get paid for any of it except in fun and that's ok.
During the summer our church (actually about 4 of us ladies) will make and bake almost 500 cranberry pies. Some are plain cranberry and some have other fruits in them. I think that there are about 7 flavors. We freeze them after they are baked and then serve them at Cranfest with icecream. We also serve breakfast and lunch in the church basement so that people have a place to sit down. I and my group of 4 ladies have a tent/booth upstairs that we serve coffee, pie and cookies along with my special recipe of Cranapple cider. All the profit from both booths get sent to our missionaries. Some gets sent to the Lettons and most gets sent to an orphanage run by a friend of ours in Bogota Columbia. She has over 100 kids in the orphanage and helps hundreds in the mountains too. We are such a little church it is a special blessing to us all to be able to work at cranfest and send such amounts to help. The men collect garbage at Cranfest and Cranfest pays them an hourly donation. This money is used to send our work crew to build churches in Mexico and to pay for materials. Really, for a church of less than 50 people for the most part, it is truly a wonderful blessing to be able to do this.
Will is very sunburned right now. He spent hours yesterday tilling the garden, although it kind of looked like he was trying to subdue a bucking horse. He worked extremely hard and did a good job. The kids and I went out and worked pulling grass and roots out of it. We will work some more tonight after I get home too. I hope to plant it on Tuesday. I love having a garden and seeing what is ready to harvest. It is such a peaceful feeling for me to be out puttering. I love to be outside. Will laughs at me because I get cabin fever all year around if I have been inside too long. He just wonders why I still make him set out the trash for the garbage man, after all the trash is "outside" right?
Well, I am off to work again. Will and the kids are going to go in and work at cleaning up some more auction at the farm. Should be interesting.