Planned vs. Un-planned Time Off

What would I have planned to do if I had known I was going to have a whole month off? Especially since I've never in my life been able to take off 4 weeks in a row! And when I do start working typically it will be years before this opportunity for time off comes along again.

It's funny that if I had been planning this and using PTO time I would've had such a busy agenda planned that I wouldn't have been able to accomplish it all. But having weeks of time off just dumped in my lap, and with no money to back it up it's a whole different story. For example, I live in a house that hubby and I had built brand new 10 years ago. It still has the builder's cheap transparent paint on the walls. This would be an excellent time to repaint the whole thing. I enjoy painting...I even enjoy preparing the room with all of the taping off, and drop clothes. I love choosing colors, paint brushes and rollers, and I like climbing on a ladder. Sigh...but there's no extra money to go out and buy the fun colors...or even flat white paint for that matter. We are saving all of our liquid cash for mortgage payments. I'd rather have a house with the original paint than no house of course.

So, I guess I need to come up with a list of stuff that I want to do for a month that is pretty cheap to do (just in case I am still in this state of unemployment one month from now...or longer).

I can read a book (make that about 30 books that I have been given as gifts that I haven't taken the time to read yet)

I can sew whatever I want as long as it is a straight line (quilts, pillows, curtains, pillow cases)

I can paint pictures

I can draw pictures

I can write letters (the old fashioned way...by hand...ha!)

I can write poems

I can take pictures

I can take walks and bike rides

I can teach the kids to cook

I can grow flowers from seeds

I can rake the rocks in the front yard (that is only funny to me!)

I can volunteer at some charity

I can polish all of our shoes, mend all of our clothes, glue anything that is loose, and touch up scuff marks on the walls

I can do fall cleaning (since I missed it in the spring)

I can address all of my Christmas cards now and be the first one to mail them out! (Oh, wait, I have the cards but not the stamps...hmmm...that a tough one...I sure don't want to write in them all if they won't get mailed...I'll put that one on hold!)

Until next time...