Sunday has long been my favorite day of the week. I can remember being a HS student and spending long, lazy Sunday mornings reading the paper sitting up in my bed wearing my pjs. I did this even after I was married - until I had kids. Of course, then everything changed.
When our girls were little and life seemed to get extra hectic, Geoff and I decided to make Sunday "Family Day" as a way to protect some space each week to simply be together as a family and to slow down the pace of our hectic lives. As great of an idea as that is, it didn't really work all that well. Sometimes other things, events, and people interrupted Family Day and I'm sorry to say, we didn't always keep that day sacred. But, for the most part, it wasn't a big deal.
As the girls got bigger and were in school full time, I still enjoyed the slower pace of Sunday mornings and reading the paper, but with more free time during the week, I didn't really feel the need to keep Sunday as a slow day of renewal. Of course, setting aside time to be together as a family in a relaxed way is still a worthy goal, but with two teenagers who have their own ideas about how to spend their leisure time, this is not always feasible.
In reality, for many, many years Sunday has just been another day. Most weeks, it starts out slow, but I will admit that when necessary I would spend that day running errands or doing stuff around the house or even making plans outside the home.
But.. (you knew there was a but coming didn't you?)
Now that I'm three weeks into my new job and much busier schedule, I'm realizing I am going to have to rethink how I structure my days and weeks. I no longer have the luxury of at least 1 full day and 3 half days off a week. Now I work every day and my free time is extremely limited. I've spent these past three weeks thinking about how to make this all work and still have time to relax and refresh myself (this is something I absolutely need). One thing I'm going to do is to make Sunday a Day of Renewal. A day of rest. I'm going to try not to run errands or make plans on that day. I'm not a religious person, but I like the idea of Keeping the Sabbath as a way to rest, renew and refresh myself for the upcoming week. I know it's easier said than done. But it's something I absolutely MUST do to maintain some sense of balance within my new schedule. I hope I am able to stick to it.
How about you? How do you find time in your busy schedule for relaxation and rest? Is it easy for you or is it something you struggle with?
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