When: Decide when you’ll go

One very important decision to make after deciding that you will take a momcation is to decide when. At present, my children are aged 10 and 6, so school plays a role in deciding our vacations whether the children are vacationing with me or not. For me, the two overarching options to consider for when to take a momcation are as follows:

When school is on vacation, so the person caring for my children while I’m away won’t need to take them to and from school. This works well if the person is older, is retired, works from home, or has taken time off from work to stay with the children, and so this person would usually not be leaving the house for work, etc.

NOTE: This is the option I opt for because my “go to” person to care for my children while I am away is my mom, and she is a retired nurse. While she can drive the boys around, if necessary, it is much more convenient if school is on vacation, so that she doesn’t have the juggle their two different school schedules while also managing cooking and cleaning for them as well. I know my boys, and they are a handful. While my husband would also be at home, he works, so having my mom care for our boys works best.

However, there is another option…

Real Talk: Pandemic... 2020... How Are You Doing?

Hey, My Cruising Family friends, and fam!!! It's been an interesting year, to say the least!!! How have you been???

Having felt overwhelmed in one way or another, for months, I exhale right now to share with you and hopefully hear from you too.

Allan and I have noticed that challenges started almost immediately after we returned from our amazing 10th anniversary celebration in 2019. God knew we would need that “mountaintop experience,” and we’re thankful for it, and we are thankful for God’s faithfulness through every step of the way.

Starting around November 2019, our family, with the support of some of the best educational professionals, became engaged in a process to identify and secure the best school environment for our super smart, lovable, and loving younger son, LJ, and we also worked to provide the best support for our older son, AJ, through this time. This process was intense and stretched into March 2020, which is when New York City, where we reside, went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and working from home and schooling from home all began.

We cancelled a cruise we had planned for March 2020, and it's a good thing too because, in March, Allan went into quarantine after working with a former coworker who tested positive for COVID-19, and that coworker passed away in early April 2020. Thankfully, for the most part of his quarantine, Allan was asymptomatic. For the safety of his family, and by circumstances only God could align, Allan’s quarantine went until the first week of June 2020.

Then, in June 2020, I had open-heart surgery.

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