We’ve reached the halfway point in Olof’s four-week vacation and so far we’ve done pretty much a whole lot of nothing. That’s not a complaint, however, as I always think the best vacations are those that let you relax and unwind. The couple of times that we’ve filled up our vacation days with plans and activities have always left me feeling harried and worn out, rather than recharged. For my part, I’ve been watching a lot of baseball these last few weeks, and for the past thirty-odd years of my life, I haven’t found a better way to pass a summer. After a pretty dismal couple of weeks the Braves are playing good ball again, and that certainly adds to the enjoyment.

The next couple of weeks look to be more action-packed, but mostly in a good way. I failed miserably in my ambitions to get the house in shape at the beginning of June, so I really need to whip this family into shape and get that sorted as much as possible in the the coming week. Additionally, Lydia is in the thick of switching bedrooms, and she’s painting and wallpapering and chomping on the bit to put new flooring in. I’m trying to stay out of it as much as possible, but I know the wallpaper part will be on me, and I’ll have to try to wrangle a reluctant Olof into duty when we get to the flooring.

On Thursday, Olof and I are sending the kids to a camp-out at his parents’ place while we take an overnight trip up to Luleå, where we’ll finally have the chance to see my favorite Swedish band, Bo Kaspers Orkester, play live. We’ll get home on Friday evening, then I’ll have a day to get everything organized before heading down Stockholm way on the 13th to meet up with my mom and embark on our road-trip adventure.

I’m ridiculously excited to get back to Uppsala and show my mom around the place that’s come to mean so much to me in the past couple of years. The rest of the trip should be a lot of fun, too, especially because we haven’t really planned any of the details apart from where we’ll sleep. We’ll just take everything as it comes, stopping when we want and exploring the byways as suits our fancy.

We’ll get back to Bureå on Thursday evening, then it will be right into Petra’s birthday goings-on over the weekend. Her actual birthday is on that Saturday, and we’ll celebrate with just us here at home, saving her party with her friends for the next day. I won’t have time to deal with any of that after my mom and I get here, so I’ll have to try to get most everything for that arranged before I go. Petra has given me a long list of games and activities she wants to include, so I might have to work with her on whittling that down some. Also, summer birthday parties are always a bit of an uncertainty here, as quite a lot of people travel then and we never seem to know for sure which of the kids’ friends will be in town on any given date.

After all of that, Olof is back to work on the 21st, and he’ll probably be a little relieved to get back to it and escape some of the madness of our full house. In his shoes, I know I would be.