Well as you may have noticed I have been back online this week. I had a fantastic time on my holiday from the online world. During my time off I learned a number of things:
Don’t start a project just before you take leave.
I was meant to finish up online Friday evening. Friday evening turned into early Saturday morning as I underestimated how much work I had left to complete. Then Sunday evening I had a flash of inspiration for my newly started project and (much to the frustration of my husband!) I did get online to work on the ideas. I was disappointed that I fell of the wagon so quickly, but once I had the project stage completed early Monday morning, I knew that I would quite happily stay off line for the rest of the week – and I did!
Install and test new plugins well before you go on leave.
I had installed a plugin on the blog, so that it would automatically tweet my new posts. Not sure why but it didn’t work. I should have installed it the week before and trialled it first, instead of assuming that it would all work okay.
I can take 5 kids on a plane by myself!
I was a little worried how this would work in reality. Although my kids are pretty well behaved, I was a little worried about how my unable to sit still toddler was going to cope with the time on the plane. Thankfully he slept on both flights and all the children were calm 🙂 . We flew with Tiger Airways which was an interesting experience, worthy of its own post!
If you have five children at least one of them will get sick while you are on holiday.
My eldest woke at 2.30am on our first night in Sydney with an ear ache. A trip to the doctors the next day and he was diagnosed with an acute ear infection. Monday night of this week, my poor toddler was inconsolable from about midnight until 4.00am with what I suspected to be an ear infection. A trip to the doctors the next day, proved my suspicions correct.
I am going to take time off more frequently.
After my initial hiccup at the start, I didn’t at all feel like emailing or blogging or tweeting or facebooking! And when the time came around an my official blogging leave finished, I could have happily stayed off line for another week. It isn’t that I don’t love blogging, but it was just so nice to be unconnected for awhile. I have already started factoring into my posting plan to take more time off around Christmas.
Before I go, a super big thanks to Cath, Cate and Lou for their fab guest posts. If you missed them click on their names to find great recipes and tips on moving with kids.
If you are on school holidays as well, what have you been up to? Any new learnings for you?