Easy Like Sunday…

Sunday Morning, Sunday Afternoon, and Sunday Evening

Sunday Morning, Sunday Afternoon, and Sunday Evening

Sunday means different things to different people. I like the Lionel Ritchie paradigm from his hit song “Easy Like Sunday Morning…” because I like the different choices I have for how to spend my Sundays.

For me, Sunday is the end of their week, although others set Sunday as the first day of their week. Keeping Sunday as the last day of the week means I can have the two weekend days together, which reminds me to mostly rest and relax on the weekends.

It’s the Weekend!
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Why is Sunday called “Sunday?”

English is primarily a Germanic language, although many words and phrases have been added from other global sources especially Latin and the Romance languages. However, the German and English languages are practically “siblings” because they are derived from the same mother tongue.

Many people think that the term “Romance” languages means those languages “sound” romantic, but actually, those languages originally evolved from Ancient Rome?

According to the website LiveScience.com, the Romans named the days of the week after their gods and corresponded to the five known planets plus the sun and moon (which the Romans also considered planets). Today, however, all Romance languages (especially Spanish, French, and Italian) still bear the mark of Roman day names, except Sunday, which now translates to “Lord’s Day” and Saturday, which today translates to “Sabbath.”

The Germanic English words for each day bear remnants of Roman tradition, but they also include several Norse words. Germanic languages adapted the Roman system by identifying Roman gods with their own deities.

Our present word Sunday comes from the Old English “Sunnandæg,” which in turn is derived from a Germanic interpretation of the Latin dies solis, meaning “sun’s day.” In Germanic and Norse mythology the sun is personified as the goddess named Sunna or Sól.

Sunday Personal and Recreational Activities

A few months ago, just as the spring weather was starting, hubby and I starting riding bicycles again. He bought a used mountain bike from our neighbor, and I bought a new touring or commuter bike. Although my favorite color is red, my new bike is a beautiful light turquoise color and I get many compliments about it.

We live in the city, so most of our bike riding is on smooth pavement. Over the past few years, many miles of dedicated bike lanes and riding trails have been added in our city and the surrounding metro area, and now hubby and I are really enjoying riding about 15 miles each on Saturdays and Sundays exploring different places around us. We really love riding along the Detroit RiverWe also ride about ten miles around our neighborhood on Thursdays and Fridays: our goal is to ride about 50 miles a week. It is so nice to be outside, and you can see and observe so much more from your bike than from your car.

We’ve really had fun “pimping our rides” with accessories like lights, turn signals, bells, panniers, and a front handle basket for our little 12-pound Shorkie dog.

Neither of us is really into watching sports like baseball, football, or basketball on TV or in person, so we spend those recreational hours riding our bikes instead. Here in southeastern Michigan only January and February are really cold and icy, so we look forward to riding on Sunday afternoons most months of the year. Our local bike shop tells us that many people here ride year-round, no matter the weather. We’ll see when next January comes around.

Later on Sunday we usually cook a full meal and eat it in the dining room using some of our fancier dishware. Why? Because they’re there! Why not?

Then we make sure to plan our dinner meals for the entire week and write them down on the little whiteboard on our kitchen wall. Having our dinners already planned out for the week means one less decision to make after a long workday.

I also plan my outfits for the week. Although like many people, I’ve been working from home for the past almost 18 months, I have decided to actually get dressed every workday just like I did when I went into my coworking office space. Not only am I then ready for any outside activities that may come up during the day, but I just feel more like “working” if I’m actually dressed for work.

I already have so many nice outfits anyway and I want to actually wear them, and by now, I’m really getting tired of wearing just t-shirts and jeans every day.

Sunday Work Activities

Ok. In yesterday’s Medium story I said I try not to work on the weekends, and that is still mostly true. But I do like to plan for the week ahead on Sunday evenings, a holdover from my days as a public school teacher when I had to write my lesson plans for the coming week to submit to my principal on Monday morning.

First I update all of my tasks and activities in Trello, my preferred project management program, and in CoSchedule (affiliate link), my preferred marketing calendar. Both of these programs are integrated into my Google Calendar.

Apps I Use: Five Reasons Why Trello is My Favorite Project Management App
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Next, I go through my Google calendar (GCal) and transfer all relevant information and appointments to the monthly and daily pages on my digital planner. While that may seem to be repetitive, I can add a lot of other relevant information and notes on the daily pages of the digital planner. I can also snap a pic of a page in my analog commonplace book and put the picture on the relevant daily page in my digital planner.

My digital planner stays synched in real-time among all of my iDevices, so no matter what, I always have all of my information updated and accessible on my iPhone, my Mac, and my iPads. Remember, I’m a true #GadgetGirl and an #AppleFanGirl. Actually, I’m obsessive about my gadgets and my Apple devices. Sorry, not sorry.

Lat, because I consider Sunday the last day of my week, that day is actually my “week’s end,” and by planning for the upcoming week on Sunday evening, I am ready to hit the ground running on Monday morning.

So, although my Sundays are filled with various activities, I really like to take it easy on Sundays to fully differentiate that day from my workdays during the week.

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Well, that’s it for today. I hope to see you again tomorrow!