Staycation Day 7 – Are We There Yet?

It’s still raining and we still have twelve hours to go and we seem to be out of ideas.

But we will cling to the belief that we are still on vacation and therefore must find something to do today that does not include work, house renos, or chores.

Finally after a few hours of tossing suggestions around we decided to go to Value Village.

Now going to a second-hand, used goods store might not sound like a tremendously vacation-y thing to do. However, when you are on tight budget like ours, when you choose to shop only when necessary (use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without), and when you limit your spending to ethically sourced items, then recreational shopping is not a common occurrence. And so giving each person $10 cash and telling them they can buy whatever they want, within reason, of course, (I know I said anything, but that toy is broken!) makes for five happy children and a great last vacation day.

Bananaberry got a wonderful hoodie. She’s been looking for a few months for the perfect one. Doviegirl found a pretty rose coloured, plaid shirt to match one her older sister already owns. The boys both got some small messenger bags for toting their stuff around and Superchick bought a housecoat like her sister’s. Kirby found some fun t-shirts (“Gimme a Timmies and no one gets hurt!”) and me, well, by the time I helped everyone find something I was just too tired to look for anything else. So we came home and I still have ten dollars in my pocket.

We ended our vacation by making sushi, or more specifically vegetarian California rolls. We bought all the ingredients last week at the Chinatown Street Festival, but this week we discovered that we can buy everything we need at our local Superstore. Kirby and Doviegirl basically followed these instructions.

They used carrot, avocado, mushrooms, green onions, and pickled ginger for the centers.

They just used a tea towel to roll the nori and it didn’t take much longer than some of our other meals. Everyone loved them, including Superchick, who has some definite likes and dislikes. I think we have a new recipe to add to the dinner rotation.

And so ends our vacation.

And it really has been a vacation, even though we didn’t go away. In fact, I think it’s actually been a little less stressful, since we got to sleep in our own beds. Of course, the house is a mess, since we didn’t do most of the chores, the kids are dog tired, since we didn’t follow bedtimes, and we all have to go back to work tomorrow, but that just makes the whole thing more real.

Find what brings you joy and go there. ~Jan Phillips

Related posts:

1. Staycation Day 6 – My Day
2. Staycation Day 5 – Rain and a Movie!
3. Staycation Day 4 – Glow Bowling
4. Staycation 2010