A Week Off Work

This is the first vacation week for me that’s not required vacation travel or extensive home renovation work. I am lucky that my employer gave everyone this opportunity to use some time in January to relax after a very busy 2020. I purposely planned nothing for it and wanted to see what would happen if I just took a week off for myself. In fact, I wanted to pretend I was retired this week and do the things the retired folks I know do, which is namely, exercising, enjoying some quiet time, get outside, and relax in front of a glowing screen.

I am really looking forward to this week. When you work full time and have a family, for which I am thankful to boast of both, you don’t find much time for yourself. Oftentimes weeks, months, or even years pass by without enjoying the benefits of taking a break and reassessing where you are going and where you have been. I rarely take time for myself but I am starting to realize how important it is and how I can use it to live healthier now that I am safely in middle age. I think in some respects I don’t take time for myself because I had a long bachelorhood and feel that the time to relax has passed. I want to be an involved father and husband so I try to stay really engaged. However, I need to figure this stress thing out so I don’t get wound up too tight anymore.

Here is my initial plan for the week. Every day I’ll drop the boys off where they need to go, do my thing, and then be home before 4:00. I’ll add how things turned out using an EDIT (in italics).

1. Monday: Doctor/dentist day. I am going to catch up on appointments today and meet with both.
2. Tuesday: Housework day. I am going to haul a bunch of trash down to the dump and clean up the garage. We had to throw away a bunch of stuff and it is cluttering everything up. EDIT: this went nice and we can finally walk in our garage again.
3. Wednesday: Gym day. I want to hit the gym up and do a few workouts since I can never get over there during the week. EDIT: I got a swim in and some cross training. It was awesome. I also stopped at Costco and picked up some healthy food for the week.
4. Thursday: Get outside today and hike out at the club. EDIT: It was a gorgeous day and I got out and enjoyed nature.
5. Friday: I would like to take a rest day today and catch up on media. There are many movies I want to see that my wife wouldn’t want to watch because they are either too scary or too violent. I want to also play some video games too. EDIT: None of this happened. My son’s daycare closed because of COVID exposure so I had to keep him today at home and quarantined. I actually thought about keeping him home regardless because I was getting kind of lonely LOL. EDIT#2: He tested negative for it but is staying home next week regardless.