1- “2027 Call Schedule” arrived in my work inbox last week. It’s always a bit jarring to be planning up to 18 months ahead, but this is just how it works in my particular division (and actually works pretty well most of the time!).
As it turns out, I’ll be covering Christmas week again in December 2027 (which will mean 2 years in a row, as I’m covering it this year too). I am not the only provider that doesn’t celebrate Christmas in a religious way, so at first I admit I was a tiny bit miffed. But then I reflected and realized that typically Josh will need to work at least part of Christmas week anyway — so it’s not like that was going to be an ideal window for a long vacation. Our nanny always takes off during that time, but now the kids can just . . . stay home. It’s not a terrible time to be on call, as there will be no school drop-offs and activities generally take a pause, too. Plus, somehow the hospital can be a bit quieter (not the PICU/NICU but in some areas). It will all work out.
I guess the years of blowing a sizable chunk of my PL budget in late Dec/early Jan are over. That just mean more flexibility other times, and I suspect taking 2 weeks over the summer will become the new normal for us.
Everything evolves!!
2- Back to School. We have just over 2 weeks (!) which is fine with me. I started thinking about my Ideal Week with new fall schedules in mind and then realized — womp womp — Josh still won’t be driving for a few weeks into the academic year. I’ll have to create two versions: one for Before and one for After.
3- I do need a vacation. I *did* have some time off over the spring, so I can’t complain too much! But truly, (as you all know!) I had been looking SOOO forward to our two week venture away. I’ve already thought through most of my PL for next year (I use a Google sheet I made that calculates for me so I know I won’t run out!) and one thing that is important to me is never having TOOOO long of a stretch without some time off. I *have* taken a number of shorter stretches, though I often take away from creative time rather than blow through too much PL. I think my last full week off was in the beginning of April and I don’t have another FULL one scheduled until New Year’s.
For me, that is a little too long.
(Feel free to download and save your own copy to customize with pay period dates, hours earned, etc)
4- Speaking of digital planning . . . I am considering a personal experiment for next season where I see what it is like to plan mostly digitally (I say mostly, because I will still want to do some things on paper, especially daily planning and journaling). In full transparency, this is not because I actually want to switch to a digitally-based system; it’s just that I want to have a deeper understanding of the positives/negatives of going more digital so I can have a broader perspective for my planning work!
It’s one thing to say my systems work with any medium and another thing to actually test that out. SOOOOO I’m considering using mostly Google products for Q4, though I could be convinced to try other tools if any of you feel I am missing out on something amazing (I do think Things 3 has a very pretty interface, for example).
5- DOWN WEEK: Just being honest – this week was tough!! I’m the only driver and the kids have been home all day (this has been tough on Josh, too). A was super helpful yesterday and did a ton of cleanup AND finished our family photo albums – ALL OF THEM!!!!
(I am waiting for an ‘unlimited pages’ coupon on Shutterfly and then will order them all, 2022, 2023 and 2024! 2025 was already done — also by her.)
ANYWAY, I decided that working out could just fall off my to do list for the week and jokingly called it a “Deload Week”. (more like a no-load week). I mean, if I work out consistently even ~48 weeks of the year — that’s pretty darn good, right? Sometimes I do have a harder time not being rigid with my own expectations but I’m really glad to have exercised (pun intended?) some self-compassion this week.
AAAAAND my little Starbucks blogging party is over and it’s off to work!
2 Comments
Question for you: Why would you drop working out for the week? It seems like such a source of joy for you. Is it that you don’t have time this week with all the schlepping? Maybe I am not understanding something…
It’s a fair question -I just honestly felt like getting more sleep (i initially wrote being lazy but that wasn’t the right wording) — and not getting up as early! I do usually enjoy it and don’t have to drag myself but for this week, it was feeling like a drag/obligation so I figured I might as well lean into that!