Don't Know What We Need Till We Get It

I keep singing "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone" but I'm realizing that, for me, I haven't been understanding what I need until I get it. 

It happened first when I accidentally picked up the book Little Bee from the Little Free Library in our neighborhood and realized how deprived I've been without fiction in my life. 

And then it happened this past weekend when my husband and our boys traveled to a wedding in Indiana and I stayed behind. Four whole days to myself? What a gift! Of course I miss my boys terribly and my life is most certainly better with them in it, but I needed a break. I needed a couple days where I could pick up the house and it would actually stay picked up. I needed to be able to call my neighbor to come over at 8:30pm and swim and chat together about our lives and how hard motherhood is. I needed long, uninterrupted (and guild-free!) time in front of my computer to do personal stuff (hello, Blog!) and professional stuff (hello, a million performance reviews that need to be written!). 

Every couple of years I like to step back and make a list of what I need on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis in order to fill fulfilled. The truth is, I'm scared to do it right now because I'm just not sure that I can actually accommodate what I need. Well, that's no reason not to do it! 

Let me take a stab at it: 

Daily

• 8 hours of sleep
• Time to really talk with my husband 
• Relaxed quality time with my children
• A healthy and home-cooked dinner as a family
• Meaningful work that contributes to social justice
• At least 1.5 hours to myself of free time (reading, designing e-courses, watching movies, etc.)
• Stretching
• A picked-up and de-cluttered environment

Weekly

• Running at least two times
• Catching up with my mom
• A relaxed weekend with lots of quality family time
• Time in nature

Monthly

• Interesting get-togethers with friends and neighbors
• A date night with my husband

Yearly

• Travel with my family
• Travel by myself (like the Reflection & Rejuvenation Retreat!)
• Time at home by myself with my family out of town
• Travel with just my husband 
• Time to reflect on the past year and set intentions for the upcoming year

Surprisingly, these aren't much different from what I said in 2010 and 2012.

The truth is, I'm not doing terrible on these things. The main thing I'm not doing is the 1.5 hours of free time each night, and that's making me feel like my whole life is off-kilter. That makes sense! 

Well, I'm just going to crawl my way toward summer vacation (literally because I really hurt my back last week). School ends on Friday! 

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Join us for the First Annual Reflection & Rejuvenation Retreat in Austin, TX, July 10th to 12th!

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