Raising Devils

Behind the Scenes: Operation Vacation Recovery Begins

Saturday, July 28th, 2012 | Motherlode

Where in the world is KJ? Cape Cod. Watchin’ whales, kickin’ back. Swimming pools, sand castles, the “Chatham Freeze.” It’s been a nearly completely “off” week: comments were kindly taken over by the NYT team, posts were nearly all from guests, no “quandary” last week, and thus no response.

Oh, I did a few things. Someone pointed me towards a fantastic blog about twins, and I immediately snagged the writer for a contribution–I can’t wait. She and I will be creating a dialog about what it’s like to “choose” twins in my particular way and what it’s like to have twins burst unexpectedly upon you. And when I forgot the bio on Eileen Riley-Hall’s post on letting her adolescent daughter (with her developmental challenges) grow up, I fixed it. And I had a few things I had to do to get set for Blogher next week (my first, although I’ve been a “member since 2007).

But other than that, I have been having the vacation I promised my family. Phone as camera. No emails. No sudden frantic posts on the news, no “just one more thing,” no reading submissions, no Twitter, no Facebook–or at least, very little. Vacation responders. Automated feeds–because I DID want to share the week’s fantastic posts.

And it was lovely. Vacation “entry” took some time (manifested by cranky parents and whiny children, who-sleeps-in-which-bed battles and audible fears that this would be “the worst trip to Cape Cod ever”). Several topics suggested themselves for future blogs (why, exactly, did that whining make me feel like it was all my fault for having raised these horrible ungrateful children instead of just being “one of those things?” Because that didn’t help.) but once settled, we thrived.

Tomorrow, though, One tired family, one 57 inch driftwood whale sculpture, as much of a large bucket of shells that my children can persuade us to transport and a whole lot of laundry head home. And Monday it’s back to the keyboard. I’m revved–so much I want to do! So much to pull together! And I’m panicked: wait, one child only has camp until noon and it’s 30 miles away daily? What was I thinking? And I’m thrilled to be off to Blogher, even if it’s not yet entirely clear who will be dropping four assorted children off in three totally different places Thursday and Friday mornings (that being a 2-person job at best).

But I wish I had some sort of template for re-entry. A plan. A goal for what to do first. I achieved the relaxed vacation–how do I slide back to work without losing the feeling of getting what’s important firmly up front and having time and space to enjoy it all? Someone needs to write a guide to that.

Related posts:

1. Vacation begins
2. Behind the Scenes at Motherlode, 3/4
3. We are on Vacation!
4. Spring “Break”
5. And so it begins

3 Comments to Behind the Scenes: Operation Vacation Recovery Begins

Molly Groman
Monday, July 30, 2012

Loved the post, ‘Operation recovery’.. ! It usually happen, with any relaxing vacation, they say it is easy to get back to work. I have always found it to pretty tiring.. it is really difficult for me to get back to noprmal schedule..!

J
Monday, July 30, 2012

We are in the same re-entry mode over here, good luck with the camp taxi service and have a great time in NYC

Eileen Riley-Hall
Tuesday, July 31, 2012

KJ,

I am so sorry I bugged you on vacation!!! Thank you for fixing the bio line. Sounds as if you had a great time. Summer vacations are magical. Thanks for letting me guest post. Motherlode is a superb resource for moms and great place to dialogue.

Eileen