Vacation vs. Real Life Addendum

I was thinking more on my previous post and decided that there are a few reasons why I felt that way.  First of all, when I was on my vacation, much of the time we spent in our car driving.  Therefore, I had the complete, undivided attention of my spouse, something I don't often get.  Lots of times, he is so engrossed in a TV show that he doesn't hear what I tell him even though he acknowledges me and acts like he heard.  When I bring up the same subject again at a later time, he never knows what I'm talking about because he didn't listen the first time.  Or he's checking voice mails or responding to texts from people at his work.  Or playing the Wii.  So having his complete, undivided attention for 2500 miles was wonderful.  Of course, we did use a lot of that time listening to some audio books, but being able to turn it off and talk was rejuvenating for me.

Second, I got to see some of my favorite friends and family members.  I thrive on social activity and being shut away from the world in my house most of the time is hard for me.  I try to go to Girls Night Out every time I can, and I try to attend play group.  I just recently am attempting to start a book group, so we'll see how that goes.  But when I go for several days without talking to anyone but my kids (and my husband, who usually isn't listening), I feel like I'm going to go mad.  Being able to have conversations with lots of people, particularly some of my favorites, was refreshing to me as well.

And lastly, we had the money set aside for the trip.  We used cash the whole way.  I never really felt like we were over spending or that I had to take note of what we were using the money for because it was already there, allotted for this very vacation.  I think that really took a burden off of me because one of my tasks is to manage the money.  Though we discuss it often and remain open about it, it still falls to  me to make sure the bills get paid and paid on time and that we keep up with the checkbook and the budget sheet so we know exactly how much money is coming in and going out.  It's a big job.  It's time consuming and stressful for me.  This trip took me away from that for nearly TWO WHOLE WEEKS!

Plus, I had quite a bad first week back.  Two of my kids have had the runs all week.  I dealt with the stress of trying to get the van repaired from our little mishap on the trip.  I had to jump back into real life full force--attending a funeral for a beloved family member, tackling mountainous laundry, trying to regain the summer routine of chores, school work, and music and art instruction, taking a child to Urgent Care for an earache, and getting back into the chore of managing the money.  It's been a lot to deal with for me this week.  Getting back into the groove is never easy, I guess.