Vacation

I snapped a pictures over the week of Thanksgiving vacation that I feel like perfectly encapsulates my vacation...

In this picture, you see frivolous Christmas lights up in my family room, which makes me smile so much.  You also see several baskets of clean laundry just waiting to be folded.  This was my vacation.

My work never stops -- all of them.  The demands of my teaching job never stops.  The demands of my college teaching job never stops.  I now have a children's ministry job, which never stops.  And the demands of homemaking, motherhood job absolutely never stops.

Except when I just stop.

Over this Thanksgiving break, I actually took a vacation from pretty much all of it.

I took time off from most of my jobs.  I also gave myself a break with my regular motherhood chores, and instead I took some time to do the seasonal jobs that I LOVE!  I LOVE decorating my home.  (I also love Hallmark Christmas movies... which is playing on the television under the lighted moose.)  Decorating is not work to me... but it can be stressful if I let my regular jobs take priority over my Christmas jobs and Christmas joy.

You know what?  The clean laundry stayed in those baskets in our family room for about 48 hours... but it eventually was folded and made its way to everyone's drawers.  And I was so much happier while folding it in the light of these Christmas lights.