Why Does Vacation Need to End?
At the end of June, about a month away from wedding week, I planned out a few posts, scheduled some social media, and told myself I was going to unplug and enjoy the last few weeks leading up to the wedding and summer. The kids start school early here (last week), so I set August 15th as the day back from my 6-week long “vacation” to give me a chance to get back into normal school routines before I jumped 100% back into work.
It was hard to set that August 15th date. I’m used to the go-go-go life, and I couldn’t imagine taking that long away from my blogging and writing. The things I do absolutely love and that earn my income as well. Much to my surprise last week I started dreading my vacation coming to an end. I found I was having fun being lazy. Being lazy involved a lot of Olympic watching so I kind of blame the Olympics. The fact they’re only on every four years is a great justification don’t you think?
What I realized is while I’m used to the rat race that work and 2 very active, involved kids bring, I also like the downtime. I never thought I’d say that but taking a step back for the last 6 weeks made me realize that I needed to do more living in the moment. Enjoying each day for the day it is and not always worrying and focusing on the future. That I needed to say no more often and enjoy doing nothing sometimes. For me, that’s kind of crazy but for the first time in many, many years I felt relaxed, I wasn’t stressed out, and I was enjoying myself and my family more than I had in….well I can’t remember. I don’t want that feeling to stop. Caden started high school this year and in a blink of an eye he’s going to be in college and Sydney will shortly follow.
So as I always do when I have an idea, I Google. In my Googling how to have a simple life I came across the terms downshifting and voluntary simplicity. In a nutshell, the concepts are about reprioritizing and moving away from material things and living on less therefore freeing up more time to enjoy life. Matt (my husband – oh how fun it is to say that) and I have been talking about this at length the last couple weeks and it’s something we want to do. To have time to enjoy life and not work, work, work, to fulfill the material needs we all “think” we need but actually don’t need. We just want.
We made a date talk and create a plan on making this life shift on this coming Saturday, and I’m scared but also really excited. I can’t wait to share with you how we are going to make this happen and would love to hear about any major lifestyle changes you’ve ever made and how you made it happen!
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