Y’all, I cannot even tell you how much I needed this last week-and-a-half break. I woke up this morning feeling so refreshed, so excited, and so ready to get back into the swing of things. And more importantly, every bit of stress and anxiety I was feeling a week-and-a-half ago has completely vanished. It’s amazing what a bit of time off can do for a person.
When I last posted, I said that I hoped to come back with a completely finished closet. I also said that I’d be on social media during my break. Well, I changed my mind. 😀 I had planned to give myself that first Thursday through Sunday to relax, and then to get back to work last Monday. But when I got up last Monday, I decided that time off needs to actually mean time off. My body needs that. My mind needs that. So I went an entire week-and-a-half without doing hardly any work. I also decided that time off needed to mean time away from social media, and that was amazingly refreshing as well.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t do anything at all. About the middle of last week, I decided that I wanted to make those last ten flowers for my closet chandelier. That was a fun, relaxing, non-stressful project, and since it’s a crafty and artistic project, it was the perfect project to do on my break. And then yesterday, I finished putting the chandelier together. That was fun, too. You’ll have to give me a day to get back into the swing of things (taking pictures, editing pictures, etc.), and I’ll show you how it turned out tomorrow.
But other than that, I didn’t do a single thing that could be considered “work”. And IT. WAS. AMAZING.
How did I spend my time? Well, I spent a lot of time with Matt. We relaxed and watched quite a bit of shows together. (We’re working our way through The Rookie right now, which is pretty good.) I ate a lot of food that I probably shouldn’t have, but I didn’t care. (I didn’t cook one single meal over the last week-and-a-half.)
But mostly, I sat at my desk in my studio and I read. And I read, and read, and read. I can’t even figure how many hours each day I spent reading. I haven’t spent that much time sitting and reading in…well…ever. And I just can’t even tell you how refreshing that was. Countless hours spent just reading. And because some of you will ask, I was mostly reading the Bible, i.e., the most intriguing, interesting, fascinating, encouraging book ever written. I have never read through so much of the Bible in such a short amount of time in my entire life, and to read through so much of it, in context, and in one long stretch over the course of 11 days, was such a unique, encouraging, and life-giving experience.
The funny thing is that when I decided to take time off, I turned off my morning alarm and gave myself permission to sleep in every day. But do you think I did that? Absolutely not! I think I slept until 7:00 only one day. The rest of the days, I was awake, out of bed, and sitting at my desk at 6:00. And on a couple of days, I was up at 5:30.
There’s just something so amazing (I’m tempted to use the word “magical”) about those early morning hours, when the house and the neighborhood is quiet, Matt is still asleep, the house is still dark, and I can sneak off to my studio desk and turn on my one light above the desk, with Cooper curled up sleeping under my desk, and my little space heater on keeping me warm (yes, even in the summer 😁) that I can’t seem to get enough of. And I’d rather be up and soaking every drop of those hours than spending them in bed sleeping.
Matt’s day starts at 9:00am each day, which is when I help him with his exercises and then put him on his Theracycle, which occupies him for the next three hours. His Theracycle is in my studio right now, and he likes to listen to an audio book while on his exercise bike. But that didn’t stop me from having my quiet solitude at my desk. I treated myself to some Bose noise-cancelling headphones (these are the ones I got — affiliate link), so while he was on his bike and listening to his audio book, I remained in my own little world with my headphones on and playing this “deep focus” music very softly in my ears. Again…magical. I’ve never used noise-cancelling headphones before, and I was amazed at how the world around me really does fade away when I have those on with that music playing very softly.
So it was an amazing break, and very needed. In addition to watching TV, spending time with Matt, eating lots of food I shouldn’t have, and reading, I also took Cooper for about 100 walks around our property. It was nice to have those relaxing breaks throughout the day where Cooper and I could stroll around our large back yard, and he could mark all of the trees and fence lines😀 while I could just…think. There were no thoughts of projects or to-do lists. No thoughts of what I needed to get done before I go to bed that night. Just pleasant thoughts about random topics that I had been reading about while enjoying nature that surrounded us.
Speaking of Cooper, he’s doing really well. We’ve gotten into a really good, manageable schedule with his meals. I’ve gotten his meals down to two a day, and he’s doing great with that! I feed him the first time at 9:00am right before I help Matt with his exercises, which actually takes about 20 minutes. So the timing is perfect. By the time the timer is going off for Cooper to be able to get up and move around again after eating (he has to sit upright 20 minutes after his meals because of his megaesophagus), Matt and I are finished with his exercises and we’re ready to get Matt on his Theracycle.
And then I feed him the second time while we’re eating lunch, so that takes no extra time away from my normal work schedule. We all eat lunch together, and Cooper’s 20 minutes are up long before Matt and I are finished with our lunch (or more specifically, before Matt is finished his lunch). So this new schedule with feeding him twice a day is working out perfectly and won’t take any extra time away from my work schedule once I get back into the swing of things. And he hasn’t regurgitated on his food one single time during my time off, so things are looking up in that area.
And as far as the “puncture wounds” on his hind end, I’ve taken him back to the vet twice now for checkups and wound care (nothing emergent, just regularly scheduled checkups after the first emergency visit for the wound), and she said on the second visit that they’re not puncture wounds. They’re from a cyst that burst. That was a relief because as long as I thought they were puncture wounds, I was afraid to let him out into his yard unsupervised. And that was leading to a lot of my time being required to take him out on his leash every day, which was leading to a lot of my stress. So once I could actually start seeing that the area was healing very nicely, I started letting him back out into his yard unsupervised. That has freed up a lot of my time as well.
All of that to say that my time off was amazing. I feel like a new person this morning. I feel no stress, no anxiety, and I’m ready to jump back into things. I did decide that I’m going to start taking time off like this every summer. While Matt and I can’t take actual vacations, I’m actually kind of glad. Vacations and traveling can be exhausting, and that’s not what I need. This type of down time that I’ve had over the last 11 days — sitting still, reading, relaxing — is the exact kind of rejuvenation I need, and from here on out, I’m going to allow myself to do that twice a year rather than just once a year.
So, I’m back. And today, I’m getting back to work. Stay tuned for my finished closet chandelier tomorrow!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
