Staycation, Gotta Get -Away- Get It Done

Hullo, friends. it is Tuesday! The day that we blog. Yes. I totally remembered that all day long! I remember which day it is on a regular basis! Confession–I actually didn’t remember today was Tuesday. Because I’m on vacation. It’s so easy to forget, it seems–we’re two actual days into the workweek I’m not working, and I forgot what day it was! Which is even harder to believe I managed, because–well, let me show you. Going into the summer, I had no intention of taking a week off. I had the hours, but I didn’t have any money to go anywhere, and we’re still being careful anyway. Might as well just save the time off till I had something useful to do with it, right? Well, but my admin team was taking a week off. I would still have plenty to do–there is ALWAYS more to do–but I’d be going to work every day, and they wouldn’t. I’d probably end up not doing much but answering the phones and being mad at myself for not having taken the week off. So I took it. At least, I thought, I can get some things done. Ah, yes. That age-old goal of adults everywhere, to Get Some Things Done. I made a list. I collected notes from here there and everywhere, and I brainstormed, and I wrote a lot of things down, and then I put some of them on post-its. And then I put them on my whiteboard. And still I…

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Mental Health Breaks and Mini-Staycations

Have you ever come back from a vacation and immediately felt like you needed another one? Or has it been a while since you’ve had one? If you’re anything like me, you fall into habit during your non-vacationing life. Maybe you have a favourite coffee shop, or a park or a restaurant you love. Returning over and over again to places you enjoy is comforting, for sure. I do it a lot. But don’t underestimate the power of novelty for R&R. Last weekend was my wedding anniversary. We took the opportunity to go on a mini-staycation, just the two of us. It was a lot of fun, and it wasn’t particularly expensive. We had dinner at a new-to-us steakhouse chain, went home instead of staying at a hotel, then the next morning, ventured into a trendy neighbourhood we don’t usually frequent, and wandered down the street and picked a restaurant for brunch at random (why yes, we are slightly addicted to Yelp, why do you ask?). Good choice, too – they had delicious house-smoked bacon! That particular street was full of fancy/trendy furniture stores, so we poked around a few and drooled at all the gorgeous reclaimed wood and designer tables. We’re not even in the market for new furniture, and a lot of what we saw wouldn’t fit in our tiny rooms anyway (giant harvest table? uh, no), but window-shopping was fun! On our way back we picked up some bright yellow potted chrysanthemums to decorate our front steps…

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