June's Summer Hiatus

I have recently embarked on a new season of my life. After working full-time as an administrative assistant/paralegal in the prosecutor’s office for the past five years I decided I was ready for a change. It seemed my life had been pared down to work, eating, television and sleeping. Of course my family was intricately woven into the eating and television parts, but I had lost my former self…the one who had hobbies, liked to read, and could converse on subjects beyond motions to dismiss and the Bachelorette. Where had she gone? Now suffice it to say, I have never really been super exciting and interesting, but I was at least a bit clever and somewhat interesting. It was time to find me again….

So I quit my job and with my husband’s full support am taking a summer hiatus, at the end of which I will begin the daunting task of finding another job (let me just mention here, I HATE job interviews, thus I am choosing to live in denial and pretend that day won’t arrive in the blink of an eye.) In order to make the most of my time, I have made a list of a few things I wish to accomplish. Some were goals from the onset; others have sprung up as I have had time to evaluate what has been lacking in my life.

1.    Read more/Write more: I think these go hand in hand. I have felt my vocabulary begin to slide as A. I reside in Indiana, not the hotbed of grammatical precision, nor words of more than 2 syllables. And B. I am too tired to read more than a paragraph before I doze off at night, and I am a firm believer that reading is the key to a broad vocabulary. I love to write, but it is difficult to do when you feel comatose at the end of the day and it is so much easier to push a button on the remote control and let someone provide the witty dialog. This is not my first time committing to writing more, but I hope it will be my first success!

2.    Spend time with my granddaughter: She is growing up at an alarming rate and I don’t want to miss it. I absolutely love the age she is at right now and want to capture as many memories as possible. Who knows how many years I have left that I will actually remember all the cute things she does…

3.    Etiquette lessons: This is one of those goals that cropped up as I took the time to evaluate. It became quite clear to me at a recent birthday party that there have been a few holes in the rearing of our youngest child. As I watched him heap no less than 2 dozen meatballs on his plate, eat them with his fingers and finish off with a loud belch, it hit me. Yes, a few things have slipped through the cracks while I’ve been busy.

4.    Domestic organization: We recently moved so I feel like I’m starting with a clean slate. My house is about as clean and organized as it has ever been. It gives me a spring in my step! I am devising ways to keep it this way, which means I am having to limit what pinterest ideas I can be inspired by.

5.    Establish an exercise routine: I add this purely out of obligation. My current routine is sporadic at best. It is determined by my ability to talk myself out of exercising in a way that makes me feel like I am being responsible and self-sacrificing by cutting it out. I am remarkably good at this. I would like to get into a routine this summer and stick to it. I aim to begin next week….

6.    Redevelop my hobbies: I used to love to scrapbook and now I have the perfect little subject to fill all sorts of albums. I no longer have the patience to drag out boxes of supplies and cover my kitchen table with crafty clutter, but I think I’d like to try my hand at some digital scrapbooking. I have dabbled in it a tiny bit, but I think it’s time to jump in with both feet and really figure it out. Any suggestions for software and other handy tools would be much appreciated.

So there you have it…my summer in a nutshell. Hopefully a couple months from now I will be a more-well rounded (yet toned and fit) June. And here’s hoping that my youngest child will be filling his plate appropriately, using a napkin and at the very least saying “excuse me” after he burps!