Family Work Week

So the whole idea behind our trip to NY this year was to gather at Mom and Dad's for a family work week. The thought was that they have so very much to do around the farm in the summertime that maybe the kids and grandkids could come help out. It would be a reunion of sorts, mixing work and fun. It didn't quite work out according to plan. For starters, the Tatro family had a last minute change in plans. Lincoln was supposed to come to NY with us the week before work week, have his vacation, and then return to WI and work while the kids and I stayed on for work week. Unfortunately, he felt like he couldn't get away from work that week, so his vacation coincided with work week. That meant that we needed to be seeing his family and doing fun "vacation" things right during work week. In additon to this blip in the plan, Jonathan was in the middle of tearing the roof off his house,

building a full second story,



and replacing the roof. Notice there are no pictures of the roof replaced. That didn't happen while we were there. What happened was lots of this







once the roof was off. (Yes, in that last picture we had reached the point of bailing out the tarp. Buckets and buckets and buckets of water were dumped over the side of the house.)

(That is the last picture I got of the progress, though all four outside walls and the main interior wall were all in place before we left.)

That required lots of help. Jonathan and Nichelle and Bryan and Ginny had gallons of strawberries ripening that week also, so much time was spent picking and processing strawberries.






So work happened, and I was happy to do it, it just didn't quite meet the goal of The Plan. Not to mention Derek wasn't able to come at all. So it wasn't even a full'fledged reunion. I spent the first week totally stressed out and exhausted by my kids, feeling like it was an extension of work week because everyone was so busy and we weren't able to just have fun and have vacation. By the end of the week I was ready to pack up and go and tell Lincoln not to even bother coming because I'd had enough. But we stayed, and despite my exhaustion and frustration, I was happy to be with everyone and help out as best as I could. I think a lot of my frustration stemmed from the fact that because I was there with my five kids, I couldn't help out much, other than to watch my kids (and a cousin or two) and keep them out of the way and out of the road. So- I will not plan vacation around work week next year. The kids and I will go for work week and that will be it. We won't try to do anything else. We will go ahead and use our vacation with Lincoln to actually go on vacation. Yellowstone is calling.