Last week, my kids were on Fall Break. Since I had some vacation time to use up, I decided to take off work so I could be with them. We didn’t plan a trip, we just decided to have a staycation of sorts. Except this was going to be a Staycation of Productivity! Oh, I could see it clearly…I was going to have five whole days to do the things I normally don’t have time for. I was going to clean out closets and make phone calls and donate clothes and just generally GET! STUFF! DONE!  It was going to be magnificent and I was already patting myself on the back for everything that was going to happen.

On day two of my five days of PRODUCTIVITY & ORGANIZATION & EXCELLENCE I heard a knock on the door.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Me: Uh…hello?

NCV: Yeah, Hi. Did someone order the Nasty Cold Virus?

Me: No! There must be some mistake!

NCV: *Checks list on clipboard* Nope…I’ve got orders to blow through your family and lay you out flat for the next 72 hours.

Me: But I’ve got things planned! I have a list of things to do! I have to ACCOMPLISH ALL THE THINGS!!

NCV:  Sorry Sweetheart. I’m already here. So grab your box of tissues, a blanket, and turn on America’s Funniest Home Videos because we’re gonna get real cozy for the next three days. Now, where’s the remote?

Me: *sneezes* NOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooooo!!!!!!!

I had to learn how to let go of my dream of being productive and surrender to sweet siren song of the recliner and hot tea. I didn’t want to spend three days parked in front of the TV, huddled under a blanket but really I just didn’t have the energy to do anything else. When I say this cold laid me out flat, it really did. Well, it mostly laid me out in a semi-reclined position (because of the, you know, recliner) but I just had zero desire to do anything else other than blow my nose and watch AFV with my daughter and eat carbs.

I finally just had to accept that the best thing I could do was rest. And so I did. I rested, I napped, I slept late in the morning, and the only productive thing I did all weekend was to paint my nails because even though my hair said “sick day” I at least wanted my nails to say “Fabulous“.

I still feel bad that I didn’t get to take care of all the things I wanted to over the weekend, but I guess it just wasn’t in the cards for me. It took me awhile to really get in the groove of being sick because I think I place a fair amount of weight on being productive. I often feel like I only have two days to play catch-up since I work outside the home 5 days a week, so having 5 days off meant that I “should” use that time to get things done and that I “need” to NOT WASTE IT. I think this illness was Life’s way of saying “Hey Jill, guess what? You’re “shoulding” all over yourself. How about you stop that and relaaaaaaaaaax?”

So I did. I let go of the need to do stuff and I embraced the desire to just be, even if my “just be”state involved a whole box of tissues and Nyquil and my blankie. All in all, it wasn’t a bad way to spend the weekend, and I learned to embrace Plan B when Life laughs at my Plan A.