This past weekend was the first since early April that The Wife™ and I weren’t being pulled in a million different directions. That’s not to say we still didn’t have an overwhelming amount of work to do, but it was a rare (and very welcomed) break in a jam-packed summer schedule. I really needed it too, in order to keep my sanity.

Apparently we’re still somehow at the age where everyone gets married. With only four weddings this summer, one might not think it to be too bad. However, figuring approximately two to three showers for each wedding, plus shopping for shower and wedding gifts, dress fittings, suit shopping, the weddings and rehearsals themselves, and three of them are out of town, which require hotel reservations, plane tickets, rental cars, etc. One could easily make an entire summer out of just that. Hell, The Wife™ has tried to make shopping for one pair of shoes an all-summer event. But squeezed in between all of these are our annual vacation, various family graduation parties, birthdays and other holidays. I think we’re not done until the third week in August, and it’s an exhausting pace.

This past weekend, though, as The Wife™ knocked off inside chores and a bit of take-home work, I set to power-washing the outside of the house. Everything needs a good scrubbing, and I was able to get the front porch, back deck, side deck, the driveway and the siding all nice and clean. The driveway alone took about six hours, and between that and an energetic five mile run I was about spent by dinner time. But instead of a miserable, “my entire body wishes to throw itself off a cliff” tired, it was a pleasant “I feel good about working hard” tired.

We had a pleasant dinner at a local Mexican place with another couple and their adorable newborn, and then stopped by to see the enormous house that they’re building out in the country. Afterwards we hit up the local Dairy Barn for some homemade ice cream as we watched the sun slowly sink over the Kentucky hills. From the picnic bench where we sat, it was the perfect ending to a hard-earned day.

Was it an exciting weekend? Certainly not. Was it a fun weekend? Not in the sense that most people (including myself) would consider so. But the shift in pace, the temporary pause in a four month schedule of non-stop going…that was priceless. They say you never remember to appreciate the small things until they’re gone. And as cliched as it is, it rings painfully true.

So next weekend, when we’re back to our crazy schedule, I’ll probably wish for the mind-numbing monotony of power-washing. Terrible sunburns and all.