The truth about trips

Glen and I spent the last week of October in Reno, NV for the National Milk Producers Association's Young Cooperator Leadership Development Program (yeah, that's a mouthful).

The trip was much like our trip to Texas last year for the 2009 program, but this year was much more relaxed because we knew what to expect and we knew some of the other couples attending.

Returning home, however, has confirmed, without a doubt, my new truth about trips:

For every day you plan to be gone, it takes two days to get ready. And for every day you're actually gone, it takes three days after you get back for life to return to normal. (If there is such a thing as normal.)

That means, for a five day trip, 10 days are spent planning, packing and making other preparations and 15 days are spent readjusting children to routines and catching up with the farm work that didn't stop while you were gone. So, a five day trip ends up consuming nearly an entire month (30 days, if you haven't already done the math).

I might have to extend that, though, because I haven't finished unpacking yet. The suitcase is still sitting right behind me here in the office.

But that fact that I actually sat down at the computer long enough to write this post means we've just about returned to normal. That must mean it's about time to start preparing for our trip up north to celebrate Thanksgiving. And then Christmas will come. Maybe sometime in February I'll finish unpacking all the bags and get around to all of the other unfinished household business that has been tabled until life returns to normal.