Too Much Free Time

Is too much free time a bad thing?  As a teacher, I have plenty of free time during the summer.  During the school year, I yearn for free time with all the grading, meetings, and sporting events involved with education.  Then, there are all the personal responsibilities from cooking and cleaning, to helping with homework & projects, and transporting children everywhere.  Then, the worst of all: LAUNDRY! But, then, summer arrives and I have so much free time.  After rushing & rushing and dying for one free moment during the school year, I have so much time-too much perhaps.  Be careful what you wish for.  Then, I get in the groove of the summer.  Just when I am able to manage all the free time, summer ends and I have to report to work for professional development and meetings and the cycle starts all over again.  So, is too much free time a bad thing?  I'm thinking no.  It's the paradox of having the greatest job of all time.  Teachers go and go and give everything of themselves for their students, but then they, the students, are gone and we, the teachers, feel lost.  I need an objective and a goal to be happy and I need my students during the school year.  But, in the summer, I've figured out to let them go and embrace my family, friends, and myself.  This summer I started riding my bike again and started blogging again, and I am going to start learning how to play the guitar!  (I still have a week to do this last goal).  I also read while sunning at the pool.  I also spent some valuable time with my friends.  I don't know what I would do without them.  With my family, I traveled, watched movies, cooked, played games, and swam (all the time) and hosted multiple sleepovers-too many to count.  I now know to embrace this glorious free time and discover new things about myself and others.