When's the Last Time You REALLY Took a Day OFF?

I evidently struck a chord or a nerve with my Facebook post about a while back.  It's not an eloquent post nor grammatically correct but my fb friends caught my drift and even commented that I was on the right track or they too struggle with this.

I'll share it with you in a second, but I just wanted to ask you, "When is the last time you really took a day OFF?".  Off, meaning, not driving to the office, working on your side hustle, running errands you don't necessarily have the time and energy for on the weekdays, or scraping the endurance to meet obligations.  When is the last time you said, "no."

Or is this just my life?

We now have an empty nest.  But we paid our dues of juggling the job, kid's activities, volunteering, church committees, squeezing in quality time with the family and God, socializing, etc.  I've found that although my actual commitments have decreased, the demands on my time have not.  Whose fault is that?  Well... it's my fault!  

I actually have more time available to pursue, well, stuff that I want to.  But somehow I don't have the energy to do it!  I've also put my dreams and "stuff" on hold for so long, I don't even remember what I wanted to do.

Well time is precious my friends and my time is precious as well.  Not only that, my time is MY TIME, not anyone else's.  The same goes for you friends!  Your time is just that... YOURS!

So what does this mean moving forward?  You guessed it, BOUNDARIES!  Healthy ones at that.  Along with boundaries, I need to set my priorities.  God, Family, Me, Career, pursuit of my dreams, fun, then friends or anything else.  I also need to realize that priorities will change, as I change and grow.  Some things in my life might not come along for that journey and that's okay.  God is the only thing unchanging.  I Can say, "no" and I don't have to offer the reason.  Neither do you!

I don't skip a beat and I try not to complain but I finally crashed and I am now in the have been in a  period of digging my way out of burnout.  This day OFF was just what I needed and after a small taste, I'm craving more!

So here is my post: 

I'd love to hear some comments on this.  Have you found yourself in burnout because you can't say "no" and needing a real day OFF?    

Handmade Gifts

Have you ever received a handmade gift and been caught off guard a bit?

Not many of us may be sure how to receive such a gift.  It was well meant, but maybe not to one's taste or home decor.

My husband and I have taken time to create gifts for folks, really keep them in mind as we create them, give them, only to find, that it was well meant, but apparently not to their taste or decor.  We try to take it in stride But... just some thoughts on handmade items.

I made this blanket for friends of ours (who appreciated it by the way).

Blanket and photo by Tracy Hilbun

I knew I could get something off their baby registry within my budget, but these are good friends and people.  I wanted to take that budget and give more love.  So, I took the money that I would have spent on the registry and bought yarn, crochet hook, and my love and time.  Also, I prayed over that baby that I was preparing the blanket for.  So as I crocheted, I prayed.

If you have purchased soft yarn for baby items, you have noticed that yarn is not inexpensive.  Also, how do you put a price on someone's time?  Right now, my husband and I both commute about 70 miles, one way, to work.  So we spend roughly 3 hours of our day in the car, on top of our work day.  Because we get up at 4:30 am, we need to hit the sack pretty early.  We shoot for 8:30 pm.  Since we get home, on a day he isn't away working his 2nd and 3rd jobs, around 4:30 pm, that leaves a 4 hour window to walk and feed the dog, recover from sitting in the car and stressing over bad drivers, catch up on the day, cook and eat supper, and maybe some down time or house cleaning (yeah right).  Long story short, too late, we don't have much spare time where we're not kind of exhausted.  =)

How can you put a price on the time and the love going into hand made work? You can't.

You may have some friends that create handmade items as a business so they can be stay at home moms, save for retirement, make some extra money on the side because their kids are in day care or college, or they are artists and just need to create.  Not only is their work quality in skill and supplies, it's quality in heart.  It's also art!  They may have shared some of their art as gifts to you!

Now I hope you are looking forward to receiving some handmade gifts.

What handmade items do you make?  I'd love to see them!  Do you like giving them as gifts, like we do?