I remember saying, “I really need a vacation” at various points in my life. This year, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY needed a vacation. As in — not optional. As in — about to lose my marbles.

We’ve been going nonstop for so long now. We’ve just been pushing through. We found out tough pieces of news and dealt with surreal circumstances (like heart surgery). And with every hit, we would just keep trudging on forward. When you’re a parent, you don’t have the option, right? You can’t just hit the “pause” button. You have to deal with every single card you are dealt — at that exact moment. I so badly wanted to push “pause,” but I had no other choice.

Though, the whole time, I had my eye on the prize.

Vacation.

A friend sent me this funny article about vacationing with kids: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-wiens/with-little-kids-you-take-trips-not-vacations_b_3787677.html

It’s really true. Vacationing with kids is nothing like that easy breezy trip to Aruba that you took a long, long time ago. We’ve taken a few trips with the kids, and usually I’m most relaxed when I return back home.

Not this time.

I don’t know if it was the lack of TV’s, the disappearance of a certain “to-do” list, the kids always having cousins to play with, or the amazing knock-you-over ocean waves. IT WAS WONDERFUL. All of it.

And then I came home. And there was my “to-do” list, on my desk, staring me right in the face. Ugh.

I need to find out how to get that vacation feeling every day. Even if I can just capture it for 5 minutes. Ok, I’ll take 5 seconds! I just want to bottle that feeling and pull it out once a day. Because I’ve discovered this: I really, really, really need another vacation. 🙂