Weekend Activities

Weekend Activities

By Allan Olson

I really think that maybe we are doing things wrong in life – the weekend goes by in a blur while the weekdays tick slowly by. There is never enough time in a weekend to do all the fun things a person wants to do, let alone all the “chores” that need to be done. The last two weekends have been so busy we haven’t had much for down time, its run here and run there and before we know it’s after 10 p.m. Sunday night and it’s time to start the work week.

Prior to discussing the weekends activities of myself and my crazy family – I need to back up a little to April 1, since I failed to mention it in last week’s column with all the Easter activities.

First – I hope everyone enjoyed our April fools edition; it truly was a lot of fun to put the stories together and listen to the reactions from people after. In my house, I’m not much of a ‘prankster’ I love to tease my kids but I don’t play pranks on them. This year on the first day of April – I was pranked, by the unlikeliest of all, my youngest daughter Alivia. I started out the morning with my usual – getting up at 6 a.m., showered and got ready for work. I walked out into our living room and there was my little “innocent” daughter all dressed and ready for school sitting on the couch in the dark. I took a minute to pick on her a little, like normal – getting just the tiniest bit of a smile from her, I moved to flip the lights on and nothing the room remained dark, so like every idiot I flipped the switch a couple more times (like that’s going to make a difference) and the room remained dark. I was very confused – until Alivia shouted “April Fools” okay, my first reaction was that she unscrewed the light bulbs, not sure why I thought a short little girl could do that but it was. However, she fessed up and informed that her brother Marcus had showed her what fuse breaker killed the power in that room the day prior, “we planned it,” she said proudly. They might’ve planned but in this case it was all her since the others were still in bed. All I can say is these kids better watch out – next year dad’s coming for them, no more Mr. Nice Guy.

As for the weekend, like I said it went by in a blur. Saturday morning the boys and I went to a planning meeting for our annual Geocaching event – this year to be held at Norway Beach in Cass Lake, that afternoon the boys and I headed to Bemidji to grab a quick geocache and to get Nikolai a pair of boots for working. The girls went to a movie in all of this and then went home. The rest of the evening was spent doing odd work, like picking up garbage that had ended up in the yard, cutting a tree up until the chain came off and various other cleaning duties.

Sunday morning – I lazed in bed reading a book until about 9 a.m. then Alivia and I made banana muffins while my wife made apple scones, all of it made a great breakfast. We followed that up with a past due cleaning of our room while the kids worked a little in the house then headed out to work on a fort in the tree I had planned on cutting up that a strong wind blew down last fall. Apparently they all have their own little section of the tree with their own branches to sit in. They also used a scissors to cut some tall grass, why a scissors? I don’t know but I guess it’s better than them starting up my weed trimmer. Late afternoon found us in town again, this time for a new ceiling fan for our bedroom. When we moved into our place just over four years ago the bedroom had a fan, with lights – sans fan blades, so we decided it’s time to do something about the ugly thing adorning our ceiling, like removing it. We visited a couple stores, picked out the one we liked and my wife set about wiring it up once we got home. I helped as little as possible as we’ve found that it is best for us if I don’t help with fixing or installing things. As my brother in-law says “my protons and neutrons flow backwards” and you don’t want me to wire anything or really fix anything, it’s just better if I stay out of the way.

The rest of the evening I spent working on work items and soon it was once again the end of the weekend and time to hit the bed to prepare for a new work week.

This weekend, I’ve already made plans for Saturday, as well as the following Saturday as for the Sunday’s I could say I would probably just relax and stay at home but that’s not likely going to happen.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.