I spent a lot of my weekend doing what I NEVER do: Relaxing. Check this out:
(I know our couch cover is godawful, but it hides the dog hair.)
That was my view on Sunday morning. We've recently reinstated the Sunday NYT, and I can't tell you how much I love it. I slept in (Lala was out of town, not that she would have tried to prevent me) until about 10:30 (unheard of!) and then moved to the chaise to drink coffee, read the Times, and do the crossword puzzle (on the iPad because the app is so fantastic). Every time my guilt-brain stirred and said, "Get up! Work! Write! Clean something!" I hit snooze on it and went back to reading.
Later, I idly wondered what time it was. Maybe 1pm? 1:30?
I looked at my phone. It was FOUR O'CLOCK. I'd been idling for five and a half hours. It was AWESOME. It felt kind of magical.
I've decided this: (remind me later, huh?) On Sundays when I'm not on total deadline, I will take the day off and only do what I want to do. Last weekend, when I made that whole list of things I was planning on doing, I felt like a failure when I counted things up and realized I'd only done three of my six plans. I don't want to PLAN my down time so much. I want to just be in it.
You would think it wouldn't be that hard, huh? I'm rereading Tom Hodgkinson's How to Be Idle: A Loafer's Manifesto because it helped me once, and it's helping again.
In fact, right now what I should be doing is folding and putting away laundry. Instead, I think I'll go take a nap. Or at least read for a bit. Back to work tomorrow for a long week, so I'm seizing the moment right now. Yay!
And oh, hey! You should check out the holiday recipe ring I'm in HERE, put on by all the Avon ladies at HarperCollins. My contribution was buttermilk pie. Mmmmm.