Monday, May 18, 2009

Like a crazy machine

I have been a total blogging putz lately. And it is not like I have a lack of things to say, I really don't. I still have to finish up the updates on the kids- I only got through 1/3 of it before something called me away. And I have innumerable scraps of paper sitting around with different thoughts scrawled on them. Not that I could read them, but maybe I could figure out one word to jog my memory.

Now for working:

Up until Friday night I hadn't worked a shift for 2 1/2 weeks. (I am a nurse in a medical intensive care unit downtown. I usually work 8-16 hours a week). I got SO MUCH DONE! I felt like I had all this extra time, lots of energy and I was super industrious. I am codirecting preschool VBS in June, and I got a huge chunk of that ready and organized, my garden planted, trip to Mall of America, some new friends over etc.

You know how when you work full time and then you take a vacation day, or a week, and you feel like you can get so much done? Or if you are home with your kids all the time and then they go to G and G's for the day and you are amazed at how productive you are? Well that is how I felt with an extra 8-16 hours a week (plus drive time!).

But I know that if it went on too long it would just melt into the other hours of my day and probably really not help me be industrious. I would probably just read more.

So I think I am going to just periodically (every couple or 3 months) stop working for 2-3 weeks. Just to rejuvenate, concentrate on home projects etc. It is one of the perks of working per diem, so I may as well take advantage of it :)

The other thing I discovered is that I spend much more money when I am not working. I have all this extra energy so I have all of these places I want to take the kids- but more than that I have all of these "home projects" I want to do, and actually have time to plan them! Which leads to more work for Noah.

I think he may secretly like it when I work because it keeps my energy level down a little and thus he has less "projects" to help me complete. Basically I demolish, and he builds. It works for us!

So here is the question of the day:

When you have time off of work, do you take advantage of it to do "big projects" or to tackle something you haven't had time for? Or do you just sit around and relax? Or do you always leave home and go on an actual vacation?

3 comments:

Matt said...

"Big projects"... definitely. When I first started my job I didn't know what to do with my vacation (actually going on vacation every opportunity gets expensive), so I started cleaning/organizing/building things around my place. I really enjoy having a day off here and there to get extra projects done around the house (which means I'm *really* looking forward to Memorial Day!)

EDW said...

Kind of a combo now. I used to mainly take vacations with my time (mainly visiting family in other states) but now I try to balance it out more, especially since Matt has great ideas for projects, and the knowledge/skills to do them!

Unknown said...

Vacation...Whats that? If I ever have a "free" day from grad school its typically spent sleeping/relaxing or trying to catch up on other school work I couldnt do because of some other school project that was due before it... Soon to be done!