Ready to Relax

Take time to smell the flowers.

Our official school year has ended. The weather here has been gorgeous for most of the week and we have been taking advantage of the warm breezes and sunny days. I think the boys were only in the house about two hours yesterday. They spent much of the morning designing and constructing a cardboard quiver for their Air Hunter Z-Curve Bows. I worked on the final stages of their homeschool portfolios. Just when I thought I could finish them in record time, I ran out of paper for my Dymo label maker. After a quick trip to Target this morning, I should be able to check portfolios off of my to-do list.

I'm also in the middle of a packing frenzy for our trip to Maine. Because we are staying in a cottage with a full kitchen, I plan to cook most of our meals instead of eating out. I want to take as much food as we can from home and only buy the foods that won't travel well when we get there. All of this planning and organizing is adding a bit more stress to my life than I really want. It made me wonder if the relaxation I hope to enjoy while at the cottage is worth the stress caused by pulling off the trip in the first place.

I have been reading a fantastic book this month, Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time by Brigid Schulte. I know my schedule is not nearly as hectic as many of my friends; I do not work outside the home, my kids are involved in almost no sports, I guard my time very jealously. But I still feel the stress brought on by the time crunch we all feel living in such an always-on world. I am looking at changing the way I use technology in my daily life. I want to cut back on my online time this summer, maybe setting up specific times of day for checking in, then disconnecting and spending time doing more tangible work around the house. Or better yet, taking time to just relax and do nothing. I wonder if I can still remember how to just sit and not do anything.

That should make for a very interesting summer...