The Gift of Unscheduled Time

Manic:  Life on a super busy schedule, that has me feeling like a hamster on a speeding treadmill at times.

Managed:  Scheduling some unscheduled time.  It is a gift.

Hoping for a little more of this in 2015 🙂

Happy New Year out there to my awesome readers.  As Jan. 1st approaches, I make and take the time to reflect, to relax and to truly enjoy the gift of unscheduled time.  This time will be short and very sweet as we will soon be thrust back into our busy lives, appointments, deadlines, due dates, tax season (ugh) and more.  But for now, I am quite thankful for the gift of unscheduled time.

Yesterday, upon our arrival home from a wonderful Christmas with my husband’s absolutely amazing family (I know how lucky I am) we actually got a lot of organzing done.  And this time, I didn’t ask this of anyone.  I didn’t put it on a schedule.  We just did it.  My teen boy took it upon himself to completely clean out a room from ceiling to floor that will become a hobby/train/model building room for his Daddy. My hubs (who unfortunately, is not on unscheduled time and, is right back at work) came home to a wonderful surprise to see this room emptied out and ready to launch a man cave room for him and his hobbies.  Nice son to do that for his dear ol’ Dad!

My teen girl worked just as hard and took it upon herself to clean out her Mama’s very cluttered kitchen cabinets, utensil drawers and more and she filled a big box with helpful kitchen items that was ready to go Goodwill.

The only thing wrong with this picture is the phone in my hand. Let your phone go when you schedule your unscheduled time.

And just when I thought I was done pinching myself from these good deeds from my kids (that feels amazing since the house is being decluttered), that teen boy of mine surprised me yet again with a clean garage. That garage was an eyesore that had me shutting the garage door as quick as I could so the neighbors wouldn’t see in whenever I had to back my car out of the messy and embarrassing space!

And to top if off, my driving boy took it all to Goodwill for me!  Loving that he drives.

So we celebrated with dinner out and a double feature at the movies.  My girl had never been to a double feature before, which surprised me a little.  But that’s right, an overbooked calendar doesn’t allow for lazy hours at the cinema.  Scheduling unscheduled time did and it was very nice.

My New Year’s wish for all of you is sort of an oxymoron.  First take out your calender and then put it away for a few days.  Schedule some precious unscheduled time.

I am reminded of what my Mama told me as I held my newborn son 17 years ago and agonized in those moments about my upcoming career decisions and balancing my newfound love with this baby boy that my heart fell deeply in love with at first sight.

Mother with me and the new love of my life, my firstborn.

My wise and loving Mother looked at me and gently said that I would know which decisions would be the right ones for me and to just remember “that the one thing you can’t get back is time” and her words have stayed with me ever since.

Good advice, Mom….cuz the days of those kids climbing on me have now become their current climb away from me and into the world. This is also a wonderful and exciting time that I’m taking in and enjoying as we work on their wings now. And it is bittersweet for sure.

Go get yourselves some unscheduled time as you wrap 2014 and dive into 2015.  Cherish those moments because this happens very fast….

Happy 🙂