I hope you all enjoyed reading Peter's post last week! We both thought it'd be fun to mix things up a bit. And now you know that Peter will be the adult fiction writer in our family while I'll be the young adult one. ; ) I really do admire his writing style, and he talks so nicely about me, doesn't he?? GAHHH what a guy!
This week was crazy busy. Let me start by setting up a picture of my daily routine for you. Peter and I wake up at 5:45am every weekday morning. He usually snoozes the alarm twice, so we don't admit to being awake until closer to 6am lol. We get ready for the day, and I make him breakfast to go and pack up his lunch as well. Then he drives us to the train station, where he gets out to catch his train to work, and I drive home so I have the car for the day. I do my workout, shower, have a small breakfast with tea, and then start my work day, which looks different each day because of the nature of my schedule (the picture above is of my office space). Sometimes I have students in the morning (college students, to be exact). Sometimes I have proofreading to do for students. If I'm not actively tutoring, I'm either prepping for tutoring sessions or creating content for my business (such as prepping content that I share on my business Instagram account or creating some videos for YouTube or doing some form of advertising). Occasionally, I try to hang out with people during my free time as well. A few weeks ago, a girlfriend and I took a road trip to Book Barn out in Niantic (SO fun), and last week, another girlfriend and I met for breakfast at a bakery (SO delicious). Thursdays just so happen to be my days off (I promise I didn't actively take them off - I only intentionally take Saturdays and Sundays off), which is when I attend a women's Bible study and have lunch and do pottery with another girlfriend (it's really nice having friends who are free during the day!). My afternoons are almost booked solid with middle school and high school students, as well as two adult students I have. I used to have a hard cut-off time of 5pm, but now I work until 7 or 8pm some nights. I don't mind it, but it does mean that I spend less time with Peter on those days.
People sometimes tease us when Peter and I say that we only want to spend time with each other some weekends because we haven't been able to spend much time together during the week, but it's true! Some weeks, we're both so busy with work that all we have time to do is watch a part of a movie or an episode of a TV show because, as introverts, we need a way to decompress, so watching some TV and then going to bed seem to work for us lol. This past week was one of those weeks. Now, let me preface this. Peter is busiest at work at the end of each month, based on the nature of his work (he's a data analyst at Charter Communications, which is a branch under Spectrum, a telecommunications company). He always comes home later than usual at this particular time. In the past, his absence has been very obvious, but this fall, it hasn't been as bad since I tutor some nights. Normally, I manage to have several pockets of free time throughout the day, so I'm able to get in my introvert time and do other fun things like house chores haha. This week was TOUGH, though. In addition to working for my own tutoring business and for Wyzant, I also work as a tutor for a company in California that helps with education and admissions planning (their clients are students in high school and college), and whenever they have students who need help with their writing or their English (many of their students are international students), they pull up their list of tutors to see who's available. The same goes for proofreading. Because it's college application season, they've had a lot of essays and resumes and supplements coming in that need proofreading, so whenever they assign one of them to me, I jump at the chance because a) they offer me my full rate (I normally offer a lower rate for proofreading because I don't have to do any prep beforehand, and as much as I love Wyzant, they do take a percentage of each of my paychecks), and b) they don't nearly have as much work for me in the spring. I figure, if there's work now, I should take it so that it won't feel like I've taken a big hit when the spring comes around. Unfortunately, I think I bit off more than I could chew this week. I always have the option of passing on a task, but I couldn't get myself to say no until I was burned out. They normally give me a few days to complete each task as well, but this week, I kept receiving things that were due the same day, so I had to navigate completing them while also making sure I was prepped for my regular tutoring students while also not neglecting my other responsibilities. I felt like I was running without stopping from Monday morning through Thursday morning.
Don't get me wrong - I'm SO thankful for my job and for the work that I'm doing. I absolutely love what I'm doing, and I love my students (I actually acquired a new student through Instagram this week! She's an English teacher in the Ukraine who wants some help with her spoken English!). This week taught me, though, that I need to make sure I'm taking care of myself. Yes, the work is important, and yes, having money is helpful, but I should never sacrifice my well-being for it. I hadn't been this stressed out in a while, truth be told. I'd prefer not to be stressed out like that again, not if I can help it.
Sometimes, I need to say no. And I'm learning that that's perfectly okay.
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