I had an interesting email from good friends, Ruth & Dale (NWescapees), this morning asking how we're handling family time on an extended basis as they are back in their prior home area and their schedules are frantic. It got me thinking and it's true, this lifestyle spoils you with peace and quiet. They still work which adds to their pace.
We're in New Hampshire visiting family and friends for a month plus a week. We do love spending time with them all and we DO find it tiring. We realize we were spoiled by our down/quiet times that you find in this lifestyle. I can't imagine what it would be like if we added working to our pace!
It made me think about some of Technomads posts about rally's or some overwhelming meet ups and Howard and Linda back in their hometown area. Its one thing I hadn't thought about before we took up this lifestyle: going back home or extended visits.
We are loving the family & friends time and it DOES take scheduling and energy. We're kind of on our last hurrah, squeezing in as much as we can before we have to leave this lifestyle we so love so we're probably cramming in more than most but way less than those of you who still work. Finding balance for many of us is a challenge. We'd go more and see more if we had the energy to do it.
Would we change it? Nope! Example: Jesse's daughter scored 4 tickets to Billy Joel tonight at Fenway so we're double dating for dinner and a concert. Happy Dance! We're having experiences and memories we'll never forget. Tomorrow we have nothing scheduled for a change as we know we'll need the downtime.
Thanks Ruth for the thought provoking email. She always starts interesting threads so I started this one for her. 😄
Sherry
Hdrider said
07:56 AM Jun 26, 2014
I know what you are going through Sherry!! It's so true.
We have been back in our home area now for 3 weeks and feel the same way. We have spent time selling stuff off plus getting ready for a big garage sale this coming weekend, we had 2 storage units and now are down to just one. We had a 5 acre piece of land that we are selling, and it will fund today in fact, that we had to get what stuff we had on it gone, we had to deal with DMV and have a meeting with our financial guy, 3 DR. appointments, working with a mobile Aqua-Hot tech on 2 different occasions, plus visiting with friends.
It has been pretty much non-stop. We leave here and head to Portland where we will take on another group of family and friends and start all over, minus the Dr. type stuff. I told Diane this is almost like work LOL!!!!
I actually had to use the scheduler on my phone to keep track of stuff!!! WHAT!!! A SCHEDULE!!! NO Way!!
BiggarView said
08:17 AM Jun 26, 2014
Great post, Sherry.
Every time I come from work I suffer from fatigue. I enjoy the work and the pay but that isn't enough anymore. Half my waking day is spent in the pursuit of supporting myself and family. That ratio needs to change. Fortunately that time is getting closer. I can't imagine fulltiming and working full time too. But I am ready to, if need be.
Then I get to mow the yard, work in the garden(though that is something that produces tasty rewards), 3200 sq ft of finished space to keep up and its also ten years old now, so the list of issues needing attention gets longer with each passing year. Sure I'll be trading one set of "honey-does" for another when we finally get on the road.... I'll take that trade anyday. We are alone here in IL. All of Cindi's family is in CA, TX and elsewhere plus mine is in Canada so the we don't see the fatigue thing in that area, and if we do... we'll just disappear for a while and come back with another tale of the open road and the amazing things and people all over the continent.
Brian
-- Edited by biggaRView on Thursday 26th of June 2014 09:02:59 AM
Technomadia said
08:47 AM Jun 26, 2014
It is a tough balance sometimes!
But the beauty of it is... when you feel you need more down time, just drive away and get it :) Right in your own home.
Knowing we can do that, better helps us focus on enjoying the moment when we're around loved ones, friends or experiencing something unique. And it can be difficult to not just jump to the next intense experience without routing to a little break. It's so tempting to want to do it all!
Ok.. back to work we go. Got a book to finish :)
NWescapee said
09:05 AM Jun 26, 2014
Sherry - you made me chuckle, I had actually thought about posting about this, but then got busy with something else, imagine that during this week. Our whirlwind, social butterfly calendar has got our life a bit out of balance right now.
We are experiencing a busier social life than we've had for months. We've been back in the area where we used to live for almost a month, we've hosted 4 different gatherings at our RV with different / family members, we have another scheduled for tomorrow night, then the next night we have dinner out planned with other friends.
We've managed to squeeze in dentist appointments, hair cuts with the people who used to cut our hair (so nice to not explain what I want done!!), vet visit for our kitty for an annual check up, then an emergency vet visit with an overnight stay when she got sick 2 weeks later, doctor's visit scheduled for tomorrow, etc.
Like HDrider, we also tackled the storage room. We have just about emptied our 10x10 storage room, moved some items into a smaller one, dropped some things off at a consignment store, Salvation Army has seen us 3 times so far and we'll finish the task on Saturday, hoping the items on Craigslist sell so we don't have to figure out what to do with them.
Just changed our plans to head to an area a couple hours north of Seattle on Sunday because yours truly has to jump on an airplane Monday for my "real job", so we quickly changed plans to try to stay somewhere closer to the airport to avoid a 3 hour drive to the airport.
Due to Washington State parks having 10 day limits, art show traveling, etc. we'll also relocate our home 8 times during the 8 weeks we're here, sometimes just for 3 days at a time due to the free parking we get at a couple of art shows, so that in itself takes a little time, planning, etc. not to mention stress of driving through Seattle area traffic with each of those relocations.
We've had one art show, 3 more on the schedule over the next 5 weekends, we're right now on a pace of doing 4 art shows in 8 weeks, plus trying to squeeze all the family / friend time in we can and it's really leaving no down time. Like Sherry said, we really miss that. However, the fun won't stop when we leave Western WA, because we head to northern ID, close to where I grew up in Spokane WA, which means more family, friends, not to mention one of those art shows where we're actually working.
Love this lifestyle, love being able to experience new things, so looking forward to going sailing on the 4th of July with my Dad and his wife, it will be the first time we've watched fireworks from the water, so I'm not complaining. We're having a blast, we love the flexibility, we just got to a point 2 nights ago where we sat down for dinner and just looked at each other and wondered how we're going to find time to just chill any time soon.
We're not really introverts, but we are also not social butterflies and right now we're exhausted. I told Dale this morning, as I crawled out of bed for my early morning conference call, there's something wrong when all I can think of is Saturday and having a day to not set an alarm.
Working on finding the balance that we have enjoyed through most of our year of FT'ing. Again, not complaining, we knew this would be a really busy time for us, just hadn't quite anticipated just how busy it would be and how exhausted it would leave us feeling at the end of each day. Already thinking ahead to next year and thinking we need to plan a 3 week schedule here, then 2 weeks away where we don't know anyone, then come back for another 2-3 weeks and maybe one less art show. Live and learn, but for now the whirlwind continues.
Camper Chronicles said
05:00 PM Jun 26, 2014
Ruth how are you balancing trips home with your Job. Do you find people treat you like you are on vacation and don't understand you are still working?
NWescapee said
06:34 PM Jun 26, 2014
Trace, I was fortunate with the fact that I worked from home for 5 years before we went on the road. My friends and family were used to that idea, I have to explain it to other RV'ers more than the folks who already knew I worked from home. They are used to me having a phone "glued" to my ear and always on-line.
However, since Dale is self-employed as an artist, there are those that think if you're self-employed you are your own boss without a schedule and therefore have all the free time needed. That's actually been more difficult as we've discussed decreasing our show schedule so people tend to think he has more free time than I do.
The balance between seeing non-artist friends and family on the 4 weekends we're here without art shows and then seeing artist friends on the 4 weekends when we have shows when we're all tired and cranky after dealing with the public all day has been a challenge. Summers always were our busiest time, that's when the art show schedule is busiest, so we learned to deal with it. We just hadn't quite anticipated the extra busy schedule due to social demands.
Cherie has great advice, planning down time between the busy times in our own home, we're still knew enough at this FT life that we didn't really think that through too much until now. After thinking / talking about this a little more, I think we just worked 2 "hermit weekends" in to our schedule where we're not telling anyone where we will be, not planning anything and going to plan to sleep as late as Tazzy Kat will allow us on a weekend morning, etc. Still working on those logistics, but we've decided that 2 hermit weekends in a three month period of time is not taking too much time away from the family and friends and we'll be in a better state of mind to enjoy the time we do have with them.
WestWardHo said
08:59 AM Jun 29, 2014
Ruth,
Just reading your schedule tires me out! 😃
Sherry
MarkS said
09:15 AM Jun 29, 2014
Billy Joel! I'd tolerate a little stress to see him. Can I borrow your daughter for a while? I'm not complaining. My daughter and her husband are moving to Denver so the whole family will be in one place and we only have to go to Denver to see everyone. Ok that's not the reason but this is my story. After our Memorial Day weekend we get the relaxation factor. We are really looking forward to not having a care in the world. I spent enough time with the government to know the value and satisfaction of watching other people work. Until that day comes, I will continue working 14 to 16 hour days, knowing that soon I can relax.
WestWardHo said
06:17 PM Jun 29, 2014
Yes Billy Joel was awesome! MarkS truly hope your relaxation days come very soon for you!
We relaxing retired folks took an awesome boat cruise today! Life is good!
Sherry
NWescapee said
08:24 PM Jul 6, 2014
Whoo Hoo!! 5 weeks after we crossed the WA state line, we finally had a weekend off. After 3 weekends of shrinking the storage room, an art show weekend, 9 social events, doctor, dentist and vet appointments, plus an emergency vet event, a business trip out of town for me we finally had a weekend off. Friday was an aborted sailing trip with my Dad and family, weather got too nasty with Seattle's "liquid sunshine" coming down, high winds and huge seas so we had brought the sailboat back in and had dinner out, and went back to their place for a very long, very fun card game.
Yesterday we relocated to Whidbey Island and spent last night and today wandering through small towns, riding our bikes and just chillin'!!! Ran into an artist friend unexpectedly, but still, had a very relaxing weekend.
Now, I need a few more of these weekends, haha, back to back art shows the next 2 weekends then a final week back in the Seattle area before we head to an art show in Couer d'Alene ID.
Love this life on the road, already planning for next summer's visit and a better balance between work, social life and some chill time that is more strategically planned into our schedule.
One more lesson learned!!!
Wildrose Acres said
02:09 PM Jul 10, 2014
Even though we're not traveling much yet we did take a trip to our home town of Lincoln, NE, a couple of weeks ago. Literally every night except the last night was taken with visiting or having company over. The only reason the last night was free was that we stayed at a state park that is no where close to anyone.
My beautician cut my hair recently. She has given me strict instructions as to how to ask anyone else to cut it so that it doesn't get too bad. When we come back to the area she will make it right again. My dh doesn't have that problem since he's taking his barber with him.
-- Edited by Wildrose Acres on Thursday 10th of July 2014 02:10:38 PM
I had an interesting email from good friends, Ruth & Dale (NWescapees), this morning asking how we're handling family time on an extended basis as they are back in their prior home area and their schedules are frantic. It got me thinking and it's true, this lifestyle spoils you with peace and quiet. They still work which adds to their pace.
We're in New Hampshire visiting family and friends for a month plus a week. We do love spending time with them all and we DO find it tiring. We realize we were spoiled by our down/quiet times that you find in this lifestyle. I can't imagine what it would be like if we added working to our pace!
It made me think about some of Technomads posts about rally's or some overwhelming meet ups and Howard and Linda back in their hometown area. Its one thing I hadn't thought about before we took up this lifestyle: going back home or extended visits.
We are loving the family & friends time and it DOES take scheduling and energy. We're kind of on our last hurrah, squeezing in as much as we can before we have to leave this lifestyle we so love so we're probably cramming in more than most but way less than those of you who still work. Finding balance for many of us is a challenge. We'd go more and see more if we had the energy to do it.
Would we change it? Nope! Example: Jesse's daughter scored 4 tickets to Billy Joel tonight at Fenway so we're double dating for dinner and a concert. Happy Dance! We're having experiences and memories we'll never forget. Tomorrow we have nothing scheduled for a change as we know we'll need the downtime.
Thanks Ruth for the thought provoking email. She always starts interesting threads so I started this one for her. 😄
Sherry
We have been back in our home area now for 3 weeks and feel the same way. We have spent time selling stuff off plus getting ready for a big garage sale this coming weekend, we had 2 storage units and now are down to just one. We had a 5 acre piece of land that we are selling, and it will fund today in fact, that we had to get what stuff we had on it gone, we had to deal with DMV and have a meeting with our financial guy, 3 DR. appointments, working with a mobile Aqua-Hot tech on 2 different occasions, plus visiting with friends.
It has been pretty much non-stop. We leave here and head to Portland where we will take on another group of family and friends and start all over, minus the Dr. type stuff. I told Diane this is almost like work LOL!!!!
I actually had to use the scheduler on my phone to keep track of stuff!!! WHAT!!! A SCHEDULE!!! NO Way!!
Great post, Sherry.
Every time I come from work I suffer from fatigue
. I enjoy the work and the pay but that isn't enough anymore. Half my waking day is spent in the pursuit of supporting myself and family. That ratio needs to change. Fortunately that time is getting closer. I can't imagine fulltiming and working full time too. But I am ready to, if need be.
Then I get to mow the yard, work in the garden(though that is something that produces tasty rewards), 3200 sq ft of finished space to keep up and its also ten years old now, so the list of issues needing attention gets longer with each passing year. Sure I'll be trading one set of "honey-does" for another when we finally get on the road.... I'll take that trade anyday.
We are alone here in IL. All of Cindi's family is in CA, TX and elsewhere plus mine is in Canada so the we don't see the fatigue thing in that area, and if we do... we'll just disappear for a while and come back with another tale of the open road and the amazing things and people all over the continent.
Brian
-- Edited by biggaRView on Thursday 26th of June 2014 09:02:59 AM
But the beauty of it is... when you feel you need more down time, just drive away and get it :) Right in your own home.
Knowing we can do that, better helps us focus on enjoying the moment when we're around loved ones, friends or experiencing something unique. And it can be difficult to not just jump to the next intense experience without routing to a little break. It's so tempting to want to do it all!
Ok.. back to work we go. Got a book to finish :)
Sherry - you made me chuckle, I had actually thought about posting about this, but then got busy with something else, imagine that during this week.
Our whirlwind, social butterfly calendar has got our life a bit out of balance right now.
We are experiencing a busier social life than we've had for months. We've been back in the area where we used to live for almost a month, we've hosted 4 different gatherings at our RV with different / family members, we have another scheduled for tomorrow night, then the next night we have dinner out planned with other friends.
We've managed to squeeze in dentist appointments, hair cuts with the people who used to cut our hair (so nice to not explain what I want done!!), vet visit for our kitty for an annual check up, then an emergency vet visit with an overnight stay when she got sick 2 weeks later, doctor's visit scheduled for tomorrow, etc.
Like HDrider, we also tackled the storage room. We have just about emptied our 10x10 storage room, moved some items into a smaller one, dropped some things off at a consignment store, Salvation Army has seen us 3 times so far and we'll finish the task on Saturday, hoping the items on Craigslist sell so we don't have to figure out what to do with them.
Just changed our plans to head to an area a couple hours north of Seattle on Sunday because yours truly has to jump on an airplane Monday for my "real job", so we quickly changed plans to try to stay somewhere closer to the airport to avoid a 3 hour drive to the airport.
Due to Washington State parks having 10 day limits, art show traveling, etc. we'll also relocate our home 8 times during the 8 weeks we're here, sometimes just for 3 days at a time due to the free parking we get at a couple of art shows, so that in itself takes a little time, planning, etc. not to mention stress of driving through Seattle area traffic with each of those relocations.
We've had one art show, 3 more on the schedule over the next 5 weekends, we're right now on a pace of doing 4 art shows in 8 weeks, plus trying to squeeze all the family / friend time in we can and it's really leaving no down time. Like Sherry said, we really miss that. However, the fun won't stop when we leave Western WA, because we head to northern ID, close to where I grew up in Spokane WA, which means more family, friends, not to mention one of those art shows where we're actually working.
Love this lifestyle, love being able to experience new things, so looking forward to going sailing on the 4th of July with my Dad and his wife, it will be the first time we've watched fireworks from the water, so I'm not complaining. We're having a blast, we love the flexibility, we just got to a point 2 nights ago where we sat down for dinner and just looked at each other and wondered how we're going to find time to just chill any time soon.
We're not really introverts, but we are also not social butterflies and right now we're exhausted. I told Dale this morning, as I crawled out of bed for my early morning conference call, there's something wrong when all I can think of is Saturday and having a day to not set an alarm.
Working on finding the balance that we have enjoyed through most of our year of FT'ing. Again, not complaining, we knew this would be a really busy time for us, just hadn't quite anticipated just how busy it would be and how exhausted it would leave us feeling at the end of each day. Already thinking ahead to next year and thinking we need to plan a 3 week schedule here, then 2 weeks away where we don't know anyone, then come back for another 2-3 weeks and maybe one less art show. Live and learn, but for now the whirlwind continues.
However, since Dale is self-employed as an artist, there are those that think if you're self-employed you are your own boss without a schedule and therefore have all the free time needed. That's actually been more difficult as we've discussed decreasing our show schedule so people tend to think he has more free time than I do.
The balance between seeing non-artist friends and family on the 4 weekends we're here without art shows and then seeing artist friends on the 4 weekends when we have shows when we're all tired and cranky after dealing with the public all day has been a challenge. Summers always were our busiest time, that's when the art show schedule is busiest, so we learned to deal with it. We just hadn't quite anticipated the extra busy schedule due to social demands.
Cherie has great advice, planning down time between the busy times in our own home, we're still knew enough at this FT life that we didn't really think that through too much until now. After thinking / talking about this a little more, I think we just worked 2 "hermit weekends" in to our schedule where we're not telling anyone where we will be, not planning anything and going to plan to sleep as late as Tazzy Kat will allow us on a weekend morning, etc. Still working on those logistics, but we've decided that 2 hermit weekends in a three month period of time is not taking too much time away from the family and friends and we'll be in a better state of mind to enjoy the time we do have with them.
Just reading your schedule tires me out! 😃
Sherry
We relaxing retired folks took an awesome boat cruise today! Life is good!
Sherry
Yesterday we relocated to Whidbey Island and spent last night and today wandering through small towns, riding our bikes and just chillin'!!! Ran into an artist friend unexpectedly, but still, had a very relaxing weekend.
Now, I need a few more of these weekends, haha, back to back art shows the next 2 weekends then a final week back in the Seattle area before we head to an art show in Couer d'Alene ID.
Love this life on the road, already planning for next summer's visit and a better balance between work, social life and some chill time that is more strategically planned into our schedule.
One more lesson learned!!!
Even though we're not traveling much yet we did take a trip to our home town of Lincoln, NE, a couple of weeks ago. Literally every night except the last night was taken with visiting or having company over. The only reason the last night was free was that we stayed at a state park that is no where close to anyone.
My beautician cut my hair recently. She has given me strict instructions as to how to ask anyone else to cut it so that it doesn't get too bad. When we come back to the area she will make it right again. My dh doesn't have that problem since he's taking his barber with him.
-- Edited by Wildrose Acres on Thursday 10th of July 2014 02:10:38 PM