Good morning my lovelies.

It is me writing from the other side of the screen. Let's have our customary Saturday morning chat, shall we? Breakfast has been eaten but there is still some coffee left next to me on a mug. In fact, this mug is a special one. I got it from my grand mum the last time I visited my her and grand dad in Finland. She had bought the mug for me so that every time I long back home I can take that mug out, make myself a nice cup of coffee or tea and let the drawings painted on the mug make me smile. I thought that was such a nice thing to do. I will snap a picture of the mug at some point and post it here so you will see it too.

I have been on a summer holiday in Finland and Åhland for the past two weeks. I was really lucky to have my hols now since the weather was amazing and there were no rainy days at all. Another great thing was that there was one particular sentence I kept on repeating throughout my two week stay "I feel so relaxed, I'm so happy". It actually still makes me content to recall how that good feeling took over me every single day. I reckon that shows that my holiday was a successful one indeed.

I hope you all have had at least some time to enjoy the summer this year too. I mean even a few days can be good. I don't necessarily believe that you have to have a six week holiday in order to feel relaxed. Of course, it is nicer the longer you can take off from work and concentrate on other areas of life. You have a possibility to travel a little bit further away and see more things and still spend some time home too. On the other hand, short holidays can be quite tricky too. If you have, let's say only  four days to spare, your holiday may indeed become more stressful than not having one at all.  The key is to work out a balanced between taking it easy and being active and doing something nice. I reckon that one of the biggest dangers on short holidays is not necessarily the limited number of days that we have, but instead is the mindset that people often adopt. You see, quite often when you only have a few odd days off you can easily think that 'ok I'm on mission now, I must relax quickly and do everything in a rush since I need to be back to work/school very soon'. Then you start stressing about how quickly your holiday will fly by without you realising it, how you don't have enough time to do all the things you were planning to do when you finally were on a holiday or you might worry how you probably end up feeling you didn't have any time off at all. This is often because most of the things you do can easily become forced actions as you try to get the most out of everything you possibly can. Hehh not exactly very tempting holiday mood setter, is it? :) But think about it, if you desperately try to cram your two week holiday in those four days, it is no wonder that you might feel more exhausted even by the thought of going on a holiday. Hence, I recommend that you take things as they come. Don't plan too much. Just go with the flow.