Have an explosive week.

(image via)

I am exploding with excitement this week! (Sorry I couldn’t help it!) Fourth of July, which happens to be one of if not my most favorite of the holidays, is only a few days away. Since it’s on a Thursday this week, my work decided to give us a four day weekend!

This year, Jason, my sister, her husband, and I had plans to be in Chicago and watch the fireworks from Navy Pier, an item on my bucket list. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make the plans work for this year but none-the-less we will be spending the holiday the way we like to spend it, with family. We also made last minute plans this weekend to head to the beach for a few days. Impromptu vacations tend to be the best and when they are in Wilmington, they are even better! And who knows, if we start making plans now, maybe next year I’ll be able to take my own version of the picture above in NYC!

Are you going anywhere exciting for the Fourth? Please share so I can live vicariously through you! Hope y’all have an explosive week!

– A

The Animal School Fable

Continuing with talking about work-life balance this week, I recently heard of this fable on The Jillian Michaels Show podcast and thought it was a perfect follow up to Crystal’s post from Tuesday. The fable is called The Animal School. It was a book written by George Reavis when he was the Assistant Superintendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools in the 1940s. Here’s the condensed version of the story:

A Balancing Act, Work and Life

I’m sadly in the same place Annie mentioned on Sunday in her “balanced week” post in which I quite frankly have no idea how unbalanced my life is until I’m faced with a moment that kindly reminds me. Just yesterday evening I was catching up with a friend and when asked what was new, I honestly couldn’t list a thing. In my mind I’m thinking about a large project at work and how busy it has kept me, or how messy my house is because I’m so exhausted after work, or that I have 5 unfinished projects awaiting my attention. In the end, all I could say was, “I got nothin’,” all while my mind is instantly racing to think about what life will be like with an additional, breathing human being. [insert chosen explicit phrase here]

With that being said I like to think I have a good head on my shoulders, and when I feel like things are getting out of balance I go back to a simple list of 4 important things in my life, what I call my list of priorities in order from most important to least important:

1. My Mental & Physical Health
2. Family & {close} Friends
3. Home
4. Work

Then I think about the above list and what its current state is:

1. Work
2. Family & {close} Friends
3. Home
4. My Mental & Physical Health

When I think of my priorities in this fashion it suddenly makes the solution manageable: I simply stop the presses and attempt re-organization. This past weekend I brought my laptop home with the intention of working all day Saturday. Instead, I got a massage, pedicure, and took a nice long nap. I saved the work until Sunday night and called it a weekend. Will there always be a tangible solution? No, but one hurdle down … many more balancing acts to come.