May 7, 2010
At Home Vacationing
At-Home Vacationing Homebodies By Cheryl Gochnauer While lots of people love to travel, vacation time can still be a blastwithout leaving town. It's a perfect chance to re-fire friendships andremove hovering home projects from your radar. DE-STRESSING HONEY-DO'S. Relax the rest of your year by using vacation timeto get monkey-on-your-back duties done. The key is to approach vacationprojects as family fun, not work. Paint trim. While you're touching up the leaves, let youngsters slap somepaint on weathered outdoor benches. Or choose a new color for the frontdoor and shutters to give a fresh look without tackling the whole house. Clean closets. Sandra Felton, founder of Messies Anonymous, suggestssorting items into three boxes: "Give Away," "Throw Away" or "StoreElsewhere." Hold a garage sale, take things to a consignment shop, or calla charity to arrange a pickup. Plot plants. Gather the family in the yard to strategize landscaping.Pick a place for a festive kids' garden, where they can plant unusualvegetables and flowers. Visit a nursery, choosing a potted plant or two toadd life to your living room now. BOND WITH BUDDIES. Transform a vacation week into Friends and FamilyAppreciation Week. Some suggestions: Spend an afternoon exclusively with each of your children. Let themchoose a favorite snack spot and activity. Now hire a baby-sitter andschedule a "whatever-she/he-wants" day with your spouse. Revitalize relationships by meeting a different friend for lunch each day. Shoot hoops with neighbors in the driveway, or play volleyball in thebackyard. Invite friends over for a movie marathon, or to play cards and boardgames. Organize a progressive dinner. Everyone goes to one house for appetizers,the next for salads, another for entrees, and finishes up at your home fordessert. Hold an adult slumber party, or camp out in your backyard with severalother families. Whatever you decide to do over vacation, keep the tone light. "I like to dothings where there's laughter," says Ruth Strobach, who resides near KansasCity. "We live in such a serious world, under so much stress. It's fun toget together with people where you can be yourself, laugh, relax and shutout the cares of the world for a little while." (It's April, and that means Cheryl's new "Stay-at-Home Handbook" is hittingshelves in a bookstore near you. If you'd like a personally autographedcopy, write Cheryl@homebodies.org or click on this link for moreinformation: www.homebodies.org/ordersahh.htm . Cheryl's other newbook, "Mom to Mom", makes a perfect Mother's Day gift. For orderinformation, go to http://www.homebodies.org/mom2mom.htm . Copyright 2002Homebodies.Org, LLC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com)

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