Better Days

 I have a really bad habit of not using my vacation until halfway through the year - I have it in my head that I need to conserve it somehow. I have 23 days of vacation this year - no small amount (although I have friends and family who have much, much more and it boggles my mind). But - with trips to visit my family in Canada, those days get eaten up quickly, and I always want to make sure I have time to take a week off at Christmas as well. Now, it will be a few more years before I earn another weeks' vacation at work, so I think I need to budget my time differently. I may have to forgo taking the week of Thanksgiving off, or not as much time off at Christmas - because I am seriously burning myself out with no downtime.

 Don't get me wrong - I have fun - I spent a weekend down at the Maryland Shore a few weeks back, we went to the Wilmington Flower Market, we spent a day at Longwood - but all these things were stuffed into our already cramped weekends, and so the run activities were interspersed with running around and unneeded stress of trying to get the normal stuff finished as well as having fun. Memorial Day weekend is our first long weekend since January, and I have relished it so far. Even if the backs of my thighs are screaming after all the weeding from yesterday! The yard looks nicer, the house neater, and Andrew even cleaned up and tuned up the bikes so we could go riding through the neighborhood with Piper in the faux tandem attachment. I'm feeling good, and we still have another day tomorrow to unwind. It is Memorial Day here in the US tomorrow, which I think is more closely aligned to what Remembrance Day is in Canada (unlike Veterans Day, which is the same day as Remembrance Day).