6 Things I Learned About Myself On Our Family Vacation

Over March Break we went to Cuba for a week long family vacation.  Beautiful, sunny, warm Cuba.

At least I thought it was going to be sunny and warm.  In fact it was quite grey and windy – shorts and long sleeves weather.  Don’t get me wrong, it was better than the snow and cold they had at home while we were away, but it was nowhere near as warm as I’d hoped.

Anyway, the trip was great.  The kids travelled (pretty) well, I didn’t have to cook any food for a week – though I still fought with the girls over the fact they they needed to find SOMETHING to eat – and I got to sit and read.  We slept for 10 hours a night and only once was there sunburn, so that’s all in the win column.

While I was trying hard to relax and turn off “mom brain” I learned a few things about myself on this vacation.

1. I can’t turn off “mom brain.”  I’m pretty sure I knew that before, but even when the girls (and my hubby) were all napping on deck chairs I was still thinking: When did we apply sunscreen last? How long will they sleep, and then will they sleep tonight? Are they hot, cold, wet, hungry? It just doesn’t shut off. So much so I made a whole post about mom worries!
2. It’s a good thing I’m a working mom.  Being around everyone 24/7 is not my bag.  I love my family very much, but escaping to work four days a week keeps me sane.  To be fair I couldn’t even escape to a different room at the resort – well except the bathroom, but that’s not my favourite place to be.  Thank goodness there was a kids club where the kids could escape from me for a few hours!
3. Eating at the same 2 buffets for 7 days is more tiresome than I remembered.  I like food a lot.  I like to think I’m somewhat adventurous, and enjoy a broad range of foods.  But eating eggs and lunch meat every day is just so dull!  Even the “local” fruit wasn’t that good – but that’s resort food for you.  Next time I’ll bring some different snacks.  (The resort was supposed to have one location open 24 hours for snacks, but it didn’t.)
4. Reading is still an excellent past time for me.  I thought maybe after forcing myself to read so many “review” books I’d be tired of reading.  But when I get a good book in my hands I’m still more than happy to sit and read for an hour at a time.  I finished one book, read 2 others and started one more during the week.  I need to make more time for reading in my day-to-day routine.
5. Hearing the same seven songs on repeat every day around the pool can (and will) drive me crazy.  It’s one thing when I’m at work and the radio is on and they repeat songs over the workday.  I hate that too, but at least it’s not the exact same songs in the exact same order every time.  Also at work there are other things going on.  If you’re just sitting around the pool (and it’s not very sunny and not very hot) there isn’t much else going on.  You hear those same seven songs, in the same order, every time they turn on the sound system.  So tiresome!
6. I still love taking photos!  I was even happy to carry my heavy Nikon around most of the week so I could snap photos of flowers and lizards, and my girls of course.  I will be putting up photos on my photo albums page, so stay tuned for that!

So there you have it, the 6 things I learned about myself while I was on our family vacation.

What sorts of revelations have dawned on you while spending extra time with your family?  Anything you’d like to share with me?  I love reading about my readers so share what you’ve learned about yourself in different scenarios!

~Jess