This week has been just what I needed to refresh my spirits and energy. I’ve been able to clean, sleep, read, and do pretty much whatever I want whenever I want.

I’ve been trying to sleep in this week but, ironically, I’ve been waking up just when I usually would on a school day. I’ve been trying to stay in bed as late as I possibly can but I have been up by 7:00 every morning. The nice part about this is, unlike on a school day, I’m able to enjoy a nice cup of coffee on the couch while still in my pajamas.

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon reading an amazing book I was given as a Christmas present. The book is titled, Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance, written by Valorie Kondos Field. You can find it here on Amazon.

If you’ve never heard of her before, which is pretty common, she’s the UCLA women’s gymnastics head coach. Gymnastics has been a major part of my life growing up and I’m currently an assistant high school gymnastics coach. A judge, at one of our recent meets, told us about this book and our other assistant coach purchased on for us and our head coach. It’s an incredible story that goes through parts of her life but also gives out advice on how to live a happy and positive life.

The book is just over 200 pages long with 19 chapters. It’s a quick and easy read and is extremely relatable whether you are familiar with gymnastics or not. In fact, she was never a gymnast herself so the book isn’t focused around her gymnastics career entirely. I am a person that struggles with anxiety, and has for a very long time, this book puts a new perspective on how to handle daily anxieties and little pieces of advice that anyone can use in their daily lives.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and she explains her experience through a few chapters in the book. She talks about how she never let the cancer faze her and she thinks that’s part of the reason she is now cancer free. She also had a very close relationship with UCLA’s famous basketball coach, John Wooden. She talks about how his philosophies, especially on success, inspired her to be the person she is. Finally, she talks about the recent abuse stories that have been exposed in USA gymnastics. She is very close to the girls who have opened up about their pasts. She doesn’t dwell on this in her writing, but focuses on how strong these young ladies are and how she worked with them to help them overcome the past traumas they had endured.

I honestly LOVED this book. Being a coach, it gave me advice and a new perspective on handling tough situations but it also gave me a new perspective on myself and my life outside of coaching. If you are in need of a good happy read, this is the book for you.

We had a pretty bad snow/ice storm the past few days, so this morning the roads were terrible. I decided to use my time to stay at my apartment to get more chores done. I have spent my morning doing some more cleaning and (sadly) putting away my Christmas decorations. Everything is clean and open again but it is sad for me that my beautiful tree is put away until next year.

It’s crazy to me that It’s already been a week of break. I’m excited to see my kiddos again but I could use another full week off.