Aren’t weekends for relaxing?

Now that I am a whopping 42 years old, I’m starting to realize some of those things that I missed in life so far. One of them is weekends. I very rarely have a weekend, it seems that the week just keeps running on and on and on. Of course, I have mostly myself to blame. Let me expand.

Since I can remember, it seems that my weekends have been filled with stuff. Now some of it has been relaxing, but still taking up time anyway. In high school I had debate, forensics or church stuff. In college I had debate, forensics or church stuff (but got paid for the first two as a coach). And those weekends I didn’t have any of those three, I was usually studying, working or dating. Now that last one, dating, was as much stressful as it was relaxing. I didn’t do a lot of partying, or sitting around, or just hanging out. I probably should have.

Now as an adult, husband and parent, the weekends are fuller than ever. There are church events (most of which I get paid for as part of my job) and the travel with it, soccer, church meetings, girls choir, potlucks, and lots of other kids events. It is the rare time I can just sit around and read a book, or watch TV. We have a DVR, so I can relax with my favorite TV show at anytime (currently NCIS), but doing that at 10pm at night is not the same as just kicking back…I have to schedule the TV time.

Don’t get me wrong. These things aren’t bad or anything, and we have tried to simplify life quite a bit at the Payne household, but there’s always this compulsion to be doing something, anything. There is rarely the sense of doing nothing, except when exhaustion kicks in.

Maybe I need to make time to do nothing. Isn’t that a bit ironic?

Tags: church, college, dating, debate, forensics, high school, NCIS, parent, weekends, work