- The Whiting Forest. This is the forgotten little brother of Dow Gardens. They're operated together and your $10 annual pass gets you into both. Whereas the Gardens are all prettified, the Forest is, well, a forest. There are paths through the various areas that show a half dozen different types of forests we have in Michigan. And, there are forts. Julia loves the forts.
- Frisbee Golf. Turns out we have a disc golf course in Midland. (The sport can't officially be called "Frisbee" golf, because that's a brand name.) There were a surprisingly large number of people there. Probably a few dozen, if we could have seen them all at the same time. We were not your typical group, because of two things we didn't bring and one thing we did. First, we didn't have fancy disc golf frisbees. They make special ones that aren't good for catching, but are good for flying long and straight. Secondly, we didn't bring any beer. And finally, we brought little kids. The basic demographic for disc golf seems to be guys in their 20s, drinking and smoking their way around the course. We weren't terribly good, but I still had fun. We didn't get anywhere close to doing all 18 holes, because Julia was melting down. Every. Ten. Feet. This also filled one of Shannon's 30 by 30 requirements, so I hope I haven't stolen her thunder too much here.
- Basketball. Yeah, me playing basketball at the church isn't that noteworthy, but it's still something we did. Shannon came to play the organ, and the girls got to play with all the other kids that come. The older ones had a lesson and everything in the nursery. They learned about firemen, and had pictures to color and everything.
- Blueberry picking at Russell's Blueberry Farm. We did this a few weeks ago, and this time Shannon wanted even more blueberries. We picked about 4 pounds (for $7.50) plus, you can eat all you want for free while you are picking. And, as always, fresh stuff tastes better than the stuff at the store. Julia did a pretty good job of picking them, and then a good job of spilling almost all of the ones she picked. Ella, meanwhile was eating them as fast as she could. From our buckets, picking them from the bushes, or off the ground. Hopefully mostly from the first category and not much from the third. We tried to keep an eye on her, honest.
And now, it's Saturday evening. The girls are in the tub, we're exhausted, and the house is a mess. Something tells me that it isn't going to get cleaned up tonight.
(A disadvantage of the every-other-friday-off work schedule that I have is that it makes little daily tasks harder. I work a little bit more each day, which makes things like picking up the house that must less likely to happen. And then, when I get all that time back in the form of a 3 day weekend, we sure aren't going to spend it all cleaning! Essentially, this is a system of converting 1 hour a day that might well be used productively, into an extra whole day of play each fortnight. But, it's much better than the last job, where my hours changed 7 or 8 times in the last year I was there, and included early morning, 12 hour shifts, afternoons, weekends and just about everything but graveyards and Sundays.)
4 comments:
I don't know if it's just that we do things differently around here, but I'll tell you, often, our 3-day weekends are our most productive. Sometimes we decide not to be boring and go places, but usually 3-day weekends = house projects and it turns out Brett is much more efficient at getting those done than I am, so yeah, we love the 3-day weekend.
Bean: I hope I didn't give the impression that we don't like the 3 day weekend. Of course we like it; we just don't use it productively. Maybe some day we'll be mature enough.
Not having a house or yard probably contributes to our lack of productivity. Also, Millars are go-getters; Blockburgers are laze-abouters. Didn't you know that? :)
The rotating schedule is one thing I do *not* miss. So nice to have the same schedule.
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