{"id":2278,"date":"2012-11-20T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2012-11-20T08:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/?p=2278"},"modified":"2012-11-13T17:06:48","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T15:06:48","slug":"working-weekends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/working-weekends\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Weekends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend, my family was able to get away from our normal routines. The kids had a four-day holiday from school and through the combination of off-season rates and a generous gift, we were able to stay at a nice hotel about three hours down the coast.<\/p>\n

We desperately needed the family time, the maid service, and the buffet breakfast. E-mail and internet was replaced by walks together along the beach, watching movies while cuddled on the bed, and guilt-free stuffing our bellies. Responsibilities and timelines were shelved.<\/p>\n

It was nice.<\/p>\n

\"Working<\/p>\n

Work That You Can’t Take Home<\/h2>\n

It reminded me of the times when I couldn’t take work home. During my time in the Air Force, most of my work–computers, notes, books, meetings–were held inside secure compounds & facilities, multiple keypad entry locks, and ID controls. Security concerns kept my classified work at work<\/em>. I took nothing home.<\/p>\n

Contrast that with today, as Rebecca and I live<\/strong> our work. Starting and running non-profit charities and small businesses mean long nights, work emails that come non-stop, and a computer that’s basically tied to my hip. Great for Type A personalities who like to work hard and see results; not so good for family time, rest, and our mental health.<\/p>\n

So it was a nice change to spend a weekend with just family–through the bumps and normal family squabbles, of course–but not having to worry about responsibilities or deadlines. I am beginning to realize that we need to do that more. I need to stop answering and writing work emails throughout the night and weekends. And stop bringing home work that takes me away mentally from my family even while we share a kitchen table.<\/p>\n

Work Less, Family More<\/h2>\n

So this may mean that I get to your email tomorrow. Or that the website design or business plan review or curriculum re-write might have to wait for Monday… but it also means that I spend more “real” time with my kids–not just in the same room with a computer on my lap. And that my wife and I can spend less time worrying about whether we’re spending enough time doing “ministry” and more time wondering what to do with all of our new down time…<\/p>\n

… now where is Bec’s “honey-do” list?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend, my family was able to get away from our normal routines. The kids had a four-day holiday from school and through the combination of off-season rates and a generous gift, we were able to stay at a nice hotel about three hours down the coast. We desperately needed the family time, the maid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,42],"tags":[90,65,145],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2278"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2282,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions\/2282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}