It's a rare occasion when I get a weekend to relax and not have ten thousand events or a giant To-Do list. But the weather threw a wench in our plans and instead of a garage sale, we ended up having a clear schedule with not much to do. So what do I do on relax days?
Here's a breakdown of things I love to do on my days off that I don't really get the chance to do often.
#1. Pajamas.
I've found that if there are things like paintings, updates, or merch I need to work on, I have to force myself to wear actual clothes or else I feel like I get nothing done. You have to dress to go to your normal job so it's the same mindset. Relax days mean I stay in whatever I went to bed in or throw on an oversized sweater, leggings, and not care that my hair is a rats nest because no one is going to see me. That's at least 10 minutes of my life I can spend on napping rather than looking presentable.
Speaking of...
#2 Naps.
Rarely do I give myself the opportunity to take an actual nap mostly because my brain sees that as wasted time when I could be painting, cleaning, doing anything else. The new medication I'm on makes me tired a lot, but rather than fight staying awake, I took a good two hour nap today covered in dogs. Puppy piles are the best way to take naps.
Leon and Almond are like our children. They sleep with us in the bed like children too. If we're snuggled up next to each other, they'll push their way in between us to lay in the middle. Any time we lay down, they have to snuggle with us. It's a good way to make us not want to get up and today I didn't have to worry about disturbing them while they puppy piled on me because I had somewhere to be.
#3 Puppy day.
On the side, me and Rony dog sit for some extra money, puppy socialization, and because we love having animals around. This weekend we had Bragi, who has stayed with us before and loves to hang out with Almond. It's his first time staying with Leon, but it's been good thus far. He's a very chill dog who also loves to snuggle, is very gentle, and mostly runs around outside and then sleeps which we're grateful for since not all dogs are as low maintenance.
Dog sitting isn't too much work since we have animals already and we've been doing it for almost a year, but when we can, we like to relax and supervise the dogs and make sure everyone is getting along. It can be difficult when you have events to go to, but everything worked in our favor this time. Chill dogs and everyone got along.
#4 Reading/Writing
A big thing I'm bummed about with always being busy is that my reading list has piled up and my time being able to read has dwindled. It's something I want to get better at and I think it will be good for me, it's just hard to implement.
I'm going to try and at least read 2-3 issues once a weekend though eventually I hope to make it once a day. It's a good way to relax and unwind for a bit, especially if you make yourself some tea on days like this where it's cloudy and wet.
I'm also trying to get back into writing again. It was the thing I wanted to become before I started painting. I was going to be the writer in the family while the rest of them were artists. Somewhere along the line, it got put on the back burner. Eventually, I think I'll get back to it but it's baby steps and today was a good day to warm up at least. I started with blogs and articles for now, but will eventually start up my book series again. I love writing too much to give up on it.
Relax days are rare and yeah, it doesn't look like much, but little things like these can go a long way helping me to tackle a busy week and de-stress for a while. It's been a hard month and sometimes, you need to take a weekend off and do nothing but snuggle some puppies.
What are things you like to do on your relax days?
I'm going to be blogging about some random topics as well as things that are going on in my life. If you have a topic you'd like me to talk about, let me know!
-Sam <3