Yesterday I took a planned mental health day. I never adjust well to the spring time change and this year was no different. Knowing this, and knowing I just needed a mental health day, I opted to take yesterday as a staycation day.
I usually make the mistake of scheduling a ton of appointments on my days off – car oil changes, vet appointments, dentist appointments – and the day ends up being entirely unrestful. And yesterday was no different – I scheduled an appointment for Dobby the Dog to get his nails trimmed, and I also scheduled our pest control company to come and treat the inside of the house since last time they came no one was home. But that’s it – I refused to schedule anything else, and so by the time the bug guy left at 11:30 a.m. I had the entire afternoon to myself.
So what did I do? I made some lunch, turned on some Hallmark movies, and alternately napped and watched Hallmark until the kids got home from school.
It was wonderful, and just what I needed.
My next vacation day is in a couple weeks, but I already make two appointments for that day already – CootieGirl is going to the dentist, and I’m getting a much-needed haircut. The rest of that day is not really a Jane day though, since the kids don’t have school that day. I’ll have to plan a PTO day in May to be another Jane day before the kids get out of school. I always take my June birthday as a PTO day, but since the kids are out of school by then, I usually end up hanging out with them versus getting the house to myself for the day.
I can’t remember if I mentioned this in a previous post (I likely did), but word in the office is that next year we are flipping from accruing vacation time to having an unlimited PTO system. The one negative is that we won’t get paid out any 2019 accrued PTO. As such, my plan is to USE THOSE DAYS. Even after I get back from my trip to England in April I will still have over a week’s worth of PTO in the bank, with more being earned each month. And even with me taking off 2 days a month AND most of Christmas week (if not all), I’m still on target to have 2 days of PTO left at the end of the year. Do I feel bad for taking so much time off? Absolutely. I usually try to stick to 3 weeks in total throughout the 12 months but in 2019 I’ll be taking 5 weeks’ worth of vacation. That’s insane to me.
But that’s not going to stop me from doing it!
