Tara’s Takes
By the time you’re reading this, unless you’re an e-edition reader at 6 a.m. Thursday, I will be checked out. It is time for our annual trip to Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake.
The difference this year is I am planning to check out from work.
Now, when I told my kids that, they laughed and said, “yah right.” And they are correct in the fact that I will still have my laptop with me.
However, I have staff at other locations who can help with things. I have relatively caught up on projects. I trust that Per can handle the office, the dogs and my house when I’m gone. And most importantly, I have two kids who are officially adults now. I need to be checked in with them on vacation.
When we started going to Cragun’s with friends from college six years ago, I had no idea the tradition that this would become.
However, my kids and I look forward to it every year. It is a short, action packed few days. But most importantly, it’s uninterrupted time with them. They are stuck with me for three entire days.
I will say I am guilty of always saying I’m going to take a break from work; I know taking a break is extremely important. But just when I think I’m going to, something comes up. Someone needs something. And as a small business owner, you feel you need to be there when they need it because if they go somewhere else, they may not come back.
Is that reasonable, no. Is it true, yes.
The biggest thing I have learned since we expanded from one paper to four this year is the to-do list will never be finished. And we will never have a day go as planned. If things are chugging along perfectly in Tracy, the phone lines aren’t working in Hendricks, or the emails are down in Lake Benton. That’s just life.
So instead of driving four hours to an amazing lake and thinking about all that could or probably is going wrong at work, I’m checking out. If it is a real emergency, someone will call and I’ll deal with it. Everything else can be dealt with when I return. I know next week will be chaos trying to catch up. That’s life, too. But that chaos will be worth the family time I get with my kids before we start our new normal this fall with two at college.
So if you stop by this week and the doors are locked, Per is probably out covering a story or handling everything else here. Don’t worry, I do have someone else watering my plants and garden at home. He has enough to handle!
