Life has entered the busy season. Summer camp starts in just a few weeks but the staff are already here. As the leader of the staff that means that I have people at camp reporting to me for 24/7 until the end of August. Days off go down to one a week and typically I'll leave my house before 7am and return after 10pm... on a good night. It's exhausting emotionally, physically and spiritually.
One thing I've been trying to figure out this year is what really makes me feel refreshed, relaxed and revived. So many times I get to the end of a day off and feel frustrated that I either worked too hard and am exhausted or worked too little and feel lazy. The perfect balance seems to be somewhere in the middle. This weekend I snagged a little time made sure to fit in some of these things.
1. Cleaning and Organizing
Just a little picking up around the house goes a long way to making me feel like I have some control over the chaos! A made bed, dishes cleaned and put away, quick vacuum and a few loads of laundry are my top clean methods.
2. Reading
This weekend I read 2 whole books and it was glorious. Check out my ongoing book list of the year on my What I Read page. Laying in my hammock while reading is an added bonus :)
3. A Little Outdoors
With summer approaching it's almost torture to be indoors! I love riding my bike to Lake Michigan, climbing on the sand dunes, walking in the woods and swimming in the lake. It's even better that I can do all of those in minutes from my house!
4. Slow Mornings
9:00 - 9:30am is my prime time. Unfortunately usually by that time I am well into my day. The fact that I'm not really a morning person is well-known around my office. If I can wake up slowly, drink some coffee (preferably French pressed), sit in the sun and read a book or do my devotions I am a very, very happy girl.
5. Good Food
Confession: total foodie wannabe over here. Mention goat cheese or brie and my knees go weak. Artichoke or roasted red pepper and my mouth waters. Now I enjoy a $5 Hot-N-Ready Little Caesar's just as much as the next girl but good food is different. On a great relaxing day, a great restaurant or recipe is definitely involved. This weekend I whipped up a Panera-worthy sandwich of baguette, chicken, pesto, walnuts, mozzerella and roasted red pepper. Drooooool...
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| Scallops and parmasean, asparagus, bacon risotto at my birthday dinner. |
Quality time is one of my love languages so a great day has some great time with friends or family. Whether it's me and the hubby, a double date, coffee with a friend or a huge group I love being around people I love! It's also pretty nice when my husband jumps out of the car to cut me some of my favorite flower, fresh lilacs!
I don't have it quite right but I know that these are some of the ingredients in my relaxation recipe. I'm figuring out more and more that I need to take time for myself and I need to do things that make me feel like myself. A better, more rested version of myself that can continue to work crazy hours, serve others and daily surrender my needs and wants to what Christ wants and needs of me.
What do you do to relax? Any tips or ideas? Make time for it, I promise it's worth it!
I'm heading back to my hammock to catch a few last rays of sunshine for the day :)
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