Week Long Breaks from School - How does one "handle it"?

While a good portion of USA teachers are either sitting home due to snow again or trudging to school while buckets of rain fall, I sit here in Panama on the first day of Carnival trying to figure out how to tackle the week. It's an odd feeling of "uncertainty" when I use to "go go going" from 5:30 to 17:00 at work then another 4 to 6 hours at home as a single mom and doctoral student before crawling into bed.

Carnival is a national holiday week around here with 3 days of nearly "everything" being closed. More is open during Christmas than during Carnival. The nation is in "party mode", late nights, and quiet mornings (the neighborhood sounds dead - which is very abnormal). Many of my associates are off exploring another country or part of Panama. Which is great - we did some of that our first 2 years here. But this year we have chosen to stay home (we have a comfortable home and not a small apartment so we don't get cabin fever too easily). Happy to stay home, I have a looooonnngggg list of things to do from my TpT site, create new products, finishing up edits on my dissertation, yearbook pages to finish proofing, the winter village to put away, and many other things... now I find myself just wanting to veg out and watch movies, head to the beach, and just work on the TpT store. Thankfully my teenage son can "take care" of himself for the most part and is content with a quiet week at home.

My quandary of what to do and what to make a priority vs what "everyone else" is doing during break made
me start wondering - am I in the majority or minority when it come to teachers and week long breaks from school? Why do I feel like the rest of the world is off partying and vacationing while I am home trying to figure out my "to do list". I know its not because I haven't taken a vacation in a while. This past January I took 9 days and ran away to Florida with my son for a fabulous mother son explorations including The Orange Bowl Game, 3 days at Universal Studios, visiting NASA, and driving 600+ miles exploring Florida.

Last month many of my stateside friends were facebooking all about their 4 days to week long President's day break and multiple long weekends due to snow. Every few posted about "staying home" while many posted about "hiking, skiing, snowboarding" and "running away to somewhere". I remember when I was stateside those snowdays were like stolen days and regarded as special treasures that we usually turned into popcorn movie days or family game afternoon (wii, xbox, or traditional board games). But now that those "treasured days off" do not exist (we don't have "snow days" in the tropics) why do I feel "guilty" for taking days off to relax? Is it because my plate is so full? or my to do list is too long? or is it that if I don't do it no-one else will? or is it cause I fear, if I sit down and stop, I might not get up again?

Not sure if I will find the answer - but onward and forward I shall go... Maybe I will get a "big thing" done today (my dissertation is nagging at me) that will give me that sense of "accomplishment" that I can find a balance of work and play during this week of "break"? Who knows - I certainly don't