I don’t know about you, but Sunday’s used to bring me lots of anxiety. I “had” to do laundry, food shop, meal prep, pack lunches, pack my gym bag, clean, blog…. the list went on and on and unless I got all of those things done, I felt so stressed that I wouldn’t be prepared for the week. <– crazy, I know, but can any of you relate? It’s such a shame that I let so many weekends go by where my “Sunday tasks” would take over my entire day, leaving no room for anything fun.

It wasn’t until I started getting serious with RM that things changed. I realized that spending time with him- doing whatever that might be- was more important that making sure I had everything properly prepped and ready for the week. This wasn’t an entirely easy change to make and I can’t say I didn’t spend many Sunday nights stressed because I hadn’t gotten everything done and felt unprepared for the week, but over time those negative feelings went away and I was able to fully enjoy my Sunday’s all while not stressing about the start of the week.

I think part of this is because I realized that whatever I didn’t get done on Sundays could be done during the week or skipped all together. Didn’t have time to food shop or meal prep? That’s ok- I can always get lunch at work and RM and I can tag-team the meal prep later in the week. Wasn’t able to clean the house? The house will not be a horrible place to live if I don’t get the cleaning done. Laundry didn’t get done? There’s always time at night during the week- not ideal, but it can be done. No blog post written? Since this isn’t really a source of income for me, I’ve learned that I need to remove the stress associated with getting posts up- I know you guys will be around for whenever I am able to publish something so it’s not worth stressing about choosing to live my life rather than write about it 😉

Life will still go on if I don’t get my Sunday things in line, and realizing and accepting this has made a world of a difference in how I approach my Sunday’s. These days I just go with the flow- if we are on the Cape, I don’t feel the need to rush back because I’d rather spend it at the beach. If it’s a nice weekend here and we want to go into the city and hang out, I do what I can to make the week a little easier and fill in the gaps for the rest during the week so that we can enjoy our day. Realizing that I could “do what I can” was the best feeling in the world because even if I only have time to food shop, that’s enough to help take a little edge off the week’s to-do’s.

As I sat writing this post last night, I reflected on the weekend and felt so blessed. Friday night RM and I stayed in and made burgers, Saturday we bought bikes and then my family came down and we had a delicious dinner at the Social in Newton Corner, Sunday morning I went to church with my parents and after saying goodbye to them, spent the day with RM. We took our bikes for a ride to do some errands, we went to the pool, we went to Chestnut Hill to return some stuff, we went to The Cottage for an afternoon cocktail and snack, we food shopped and then I did a small meal prep. I was able to fit in all of my favorite things: family, sun, exercise, relaxation, etc. into my Sunday and not once did I feel the “omg it’s Sunday and I have so much to get ready for the week”. I don’t have a packed lunch, but that’s ok- I’ll just buy something today! I didn’t cleaning done, but it’s no big deal because soaking up these summer Sunday’s is just more important to me!

I feel like I’ve rambled on, but I guess the point of this post that I’m trying to make is that life is too short to waste time and energy on “Sunday Scaries”. There will always be things on your to-do list that you will have wished you’d gotten to, but I’m willing to bet that living in the now and soaking up the moments that come about far outweighs your to-do’s that didn’t get done. So, rather than letting Sunday Scaries get the best of you, face them head on and live your day to the fullest! And do what you can throughout the week to chip away at your to-do’s- they’ll all get done eventually, but I promise that spending time with friends and family is going to create far better memories for you than a clean house and a fridge full of prepped food 😉