Vacation Days.

It's 8:45 am in our cottage, and not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse! Today is the first day of my little vacation, which ended up coinciding with everyone else in the house. I'm the only one awake and only because we were originally going to head over to Costco at 8:00 am to pick up more cool items for the next few days. But this bed is too cozy right now to leave, especially as it's cool and quiet. So here I write, while everyone else sleeps. No complaints.

Had a chat with my boss a few weeks ago and vacation days came up. Turns out, everyone else in our hospice is amazing at taking days off, except for her and I. She informed me that I have the most days logged and should start to take them soon. I thought I might have 4 or 5 weeks but was quite shocked to learn that I actually have 10 complete weeks to use up! That's 2.5 months I could take off. But won't, because there is so much work to do right now in settling in to our space and re~opening all our programming. I think I'll take the bulk of it in little chunks, save a big chunk for Winter and use up a bit when we head to the coast for our son's wedding in September. The little chunks I'll centre around long weekends/stat holidays to get a nice rest in. Tomorrow is a stat (Canada Day), so with today, tomorrow and Friday, then the weekend, I have a nice little stretch to be lazy, or in my case, be slightly lazy but get a few things done on my task list! I'll check emails in the morning and late in the day, and my work phone will be off. I may take a few days next week to but if the weather is still so hot, I'm not going to get outside work done. At that point, I'll keep those days for another week when the weather is reasonable and I can work outside. My plan.

Are you good at taking holidays?

Or suck at it like me? Do share ....

Namaste.

~ Chy

Tradition.

I have a little tradition that started the year we had our first baby, our now eldest daughter. She was such a good baby and napped each afternoon. All my new mommy friends would tell me how they would use nap time as "me time" and hang out on their couches to watch soaps all afternoon. I discovered quickly that because she slept so well, at night too, that I wasn't the exhausted mama I thought I was supposed to be. So I used the afternoons to get things done while she slept. Our mornings were often quiet .... a walk to our little park or a morning out to a fitness class with friends, or shopping. Afternoons were different. While she napped the afternoon away, I would tidy the house, do laundry, create dinner, make lists and take care of anything I could so we could have our evenings with dh. But I found it too quiet, so I did get in to a habit to turn on the tv, very low volume but just enough to hear some voices. I found Coronation Street was on each day at 2 p.m. and loved my British show that I had grown up on. But could not, no matter how hard I tried get in to the American soaps. She would go down right around 1, so I discovered a show called "Days Of Our Lives" and while I didn't get into the story lines, I did fall in love with their Christmas Tradition. If you've seen the show, you'll know what I'm talking about but I'll describe.

The family gathers at the home of the elders and they each place a Christmas ball on the tree with their name on it. Any family members who have died over the year get a special mention and their ball is placed by a loved one. Such a nice way to decorate the tree together. Every year since, I've watched only this episode, as the days of dear daughter napping long ago ended. And with the addition of each child since then, our tv was rarely on during the day, except for the Christmas episode each year. And this year, we all watched it together, as you can see above. Fun! We may even start this tradition, if we can find some nice Christmas balls for our tree. And glitter! A lovely tradition.

~ Chy

Late Afternoon Sun.

 It's almost the middle of Fall and with 

the time change last night, our days

are getting shorter and darker. My

favorite time of day is late afternoon.

Short shadows but warm and cozy light.

Sometimes bright and definitely a

moment in time to treasure.

What is your favorite time of day?

Are your days getting darker now?

Late Afternoon Light.

Our days are beginning to get longer again. When we come home from picking up our daughter at school, we're driving home in a dusky light that is somehow comforting and cozy all at once. I love driving past other homes and peering into the lives of those who live there as they turn on the lamps and lights. Today, it was light until well past dinner time. Soon we'll have light right up until bedtime. Around midsummer, we'll be slightly frustrated as trying to get a 3 year old to sleep at a decent time and even fall asleep ourselves is not easy when the sun is still up at 11 p.m. at night. For now, we bask in the extra sunlight and warmth of the longer days.

Our bedroom window at 5 p.m.

Peeking out my studio window.

The sun is starting to set and 

casts a glow on the world.

A peek out our garden doors to the back yard.

Dusky light as the sun sets in the west.

A favorite spot to sit and read at the end of the day.

Are your days becoming longer with light?