As I sit back and really think about it, I haven’t been on a vacation (a real, honest-to-God vacation) in over 5 years. Last one that kind of counted was our honeymoon. But I was 6 months post-partum and had to lug my breast pump to Vegas so I could pump and dump every three hours. How sexy. How romantic.
Since then, I’ve been on plenty of airplanes, sure. I went to Disney with my daughter for two days for a blogger’s conference a few years ago, except I was inside in workshops most of the time and when I wasn’t, I was nursing my daughter back to health as she got sick shortly after we arrived. I went to D.C. a few times for conferences and speaking engagements but those are for business, not pleasure.
I took my kids on a weekend trip to a city that’s two hours away and that was fun. But it wasn’t the kind of “kick back in a beach chair, sip a fruity drink and let all your cares melt away” kind of vacation I need. (Everyone knows a vacation with the kids is not a vacation at all.)
So I’m hoping I can get away at some point this year. I might be scaring my husband with how often he catches me online searching for cheap flights. I keep looking at my budget, deciding not to go to Chipotle now so I can go to Jamaica later. I have begun looking at ways to save money to get me there. We’ve got all this stuff in the house taking up room that I plan to sell to add money to our vacation fund”“ DVDs, appliances, baby clothes, baby gear. I know I won’t get rich, but I hope it will be enough to make a dent in the cost of the vacation.
“˜Cause I need to go somewhere. Being a mom, wife, husband, father””those are some big roles to fill. If we don’t take the time to recharge, we can fall apart.
BMWK, when’s the last time you went on vacation””without the kids?