Finding Free Time

Everyone needs a vacation time. We get so wrapped up in the everyday rush of getting everything done. Kids off to school, parents off to work, meals, wash, after school activities, sports, nightly meetings. When is there time to slow down and relax? Do we even take the time to relax in the evenings or are we always doing something until we drop into bed at night?
Is your mind always busy, thinking of things that we need to get done? If I keep everything inside me, then I’m always trying to remember what is on my list. I end up forgetting what I wanted to do until the end of the day and it’s then too late to get it done that day. Or I end up laying awake longer when I go to bed, with all the days events and the next days events swirling around in my head. Have you ever been so dead tired, thinking that you would fall instantly to sleep, and lay there wide awake, thinking about what needs to get done?

I like to write things down, otherwise my mind is on overload. I like lists, and I like to cross off what gets done. It makes me feel that I have accomplished something! I have started slowing down in the evenings. I have realized that I need time for myself, or maybe it’s my age telling me I can’t keep going 24/7 all the time. I’ve went all out when the kids were home, keeping up with their activities, riding at night, giving lessons and in the barn until 9 some nights. Spring time was a busy time of the year, and for a few years, I enjoyed it. I thrived on the spring horse training season. But mixed with lessons, activities and late nights, I was dragged down by June. By then, summer lessons and horse shows were in full swing, and some nights were even later.
For awhile, our vacations centered around horse activities. State 4-H for 5 days during the middle of July was usually the hottest week of the year. The first week of August to Texas for Youth Worlds. The first few years, this seemed like a vacation, doing some sight seeing on the off days that we didn’t show. We definitely enjoyed the pool time on the afternoons that we could go back to the hotel. We enjoyed the years we went to Texas. We went as a family and we showed as a family. Even as the kids left their youth years and were in college, they still came to Texas to watch their younger brother/s show. But this was a working vacation. It had been quite a few years since we had gone to the Jersey shore with Tom’s family or had gone hiking to the Colorado or Montana mountains.

Now, the two of the kids are married and the third is in college. Now, it’s time to enjoy life and slow down. No evening activities to rush to. The schedule is work related, with a few meetings tossed in. With the kids gone, there is more work around the place that needs to get done. Sometimes, well, all the time, this past year, I felt like all my husband and I did was to maintain around our place. How do we get all the work done, yet take time to relax? We haven’t accomplished that too well, as I can’t remember many times that we sat outside with a glass of ice tea or a cup of coffee. During the summer, the humidity or bugs bother you too much to do that. Then there may be 1 week each spring and fall that is pleasant enough where you could actually sit outside and enjoy that coffee. July and August are very hot, and we actually have some down times during those months. We enjoy our pool, at least a few hours Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Work is so busy that, by the time we get home, finish chores, we don’t have the desire to lounge in the pool, even for a short time before showers. Maybe see a sunrise like we saw on vacation!

What works for us is to plan a week and go away. We can’t take a week off and stay at home and get things done. It doesn’t work well for us as someone is always calling. Or my husband goes to work anyways, saying he is going in for the morning, and ends up staying until 3. As far as I am concerned, that was a whole day at work and no time at home!

We are on vacation now. On a much needed week’s time in the sun at the beach.
Everyone needs to be revived each year. You need to take time for yourself. If a week away in not possible, then take that week and do something for yourself. Sleep in every day, sight see locally, start a hobby. What ever your sport of hobby is, do it every day one week. Enjoy and relax. Get rested. Get ready to start the next week with a renewed vigor!

Whatever you do, make it seem like you have been on a vacation!