Carefree Saturdays 1

I’ve decided that Saturdays are going to be days that I take care of myself. No matter what!! I’m a caregiver 6 days a week – giving care to everyone else (clients and family), so Saturdays are going to be my day to take care of myself. Yes, I only work 4 days a week, but those four days are hard days and when I get home I still have care giving to do.

I feel that I was starting to get caregiver burnout. Sick to my stomach, starting to not care about myself or my feelings, not wanting to get out of bed in the morning. Despite all this, I was trying to pretend everything was ok. My boyfriend and son knew something was wrong…my son was trying to help me feel better, but nothing was really helping. I finally crashed! Something had to change, so….I decided to have a carefree Saturday. It took a couple of days to get here, but I think I’m doing the right thing.

Every Saturday is going to be Carefree Saturday! I don’t really know how my boyfriend feels about it, but if he’s allowed to go hunting once a week then I’m allowed to have carefree Saturdays. He says whatever I need to do. I thought that I was going to have to put my two weeks in, but I feel better since I made this decision.

On Saturdays, I will not do laundry, no dishes, no cleaning – it’s going to be my day to do what I need to do so I can manage throughout the rest of the week. I know it sounds harsh, but it’s what I need to do – especially if I am to continue working as a caregiver.

It might be that I work on my gardens, or paint the rafters of my deck (we have carpenter bees), or I go to the library, window shopping with my son, or go hiking. Whatever I need to do to take care of myself. And I’m going to blog about it – Carefree Saturdays (#) is going to be the name of the post – today’s is Carefree Saturdays 1.

Gambrill State Park/Frederick Municipal Watershed

May 11, 2019

It’s been almost a year since I’ve been up here – even though it’s only a few miles from my house. It’s so peaceful and quiet…I was hoping to see some wildlife, but no such luck! It was actually my sons idea to go hiking – or go window shopping. I chose hiking, going window shopping didn’t sound like too much fun.

Researching “fungus growing on trees” on the internet says that not all fungus is harmful for trees, in fact, some are beneficial. I’ll do a post on actual fungus/fungi later, but this post is about hiking!

There is actually a blue bird resting on a big rock in the path, near the top of the photo. If I had had my telephoto lens with me it would’ve shown up better. I used to carry at least two cameras with me all the time. Well, I did have two – but one was my cell phone camera. It doesn’t always focus the way I want it to.

My boyfriend was out turkey hunting and had his camera with him.

Mountain laurel and two other plants growing on a moss covered tree trunk

It was kind of cloudy, but the sun did pop out for a little bit. It wasn’t too cold or too hot. We hiked for two hours…which kind of surprised me! I haven’t been hiking with my son since 2014 when we went camping near Niagra Falls. It’s been a long time and I thought he’d want to turn back sooner than we did. We talked a lot about things, played would you rather until I couldn’t come up with things anymore and the conversation turned to The Hundred Years War and Camelot – that’s my son!!!

Don’t know what these two plants are (above and below), but they’re pretty.

My son has agreed to go hiking with me once a month! Not sure what I’ll do next Saturday, it all depends on the weather. I do need to work on the rafters on the deck – a carpenter bee has started drilling. I might try and get that done during the week though. We shall see…

“Taking time to do nothing often brings everything into perspective.”

– Doe Zantamata

“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.” – Frank Tyger