Working parents around the world share the same general feeling about extended vacations from school: oh, crap.

How will we keep the kids entertained while still managing to work so that we can also keep them fed?

Summer breaks are especially difficult, I’ve found, because I’d rather be outside playing or taking the kids to the pool than working. (You’re never too old to appreciate that sunshine is better than the glow of a computer screen.) This year, however, I’m looking forward to my kids’ break from their school schedule and the added flexibility it provides our already loosey-goosey lives
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I was reading Nataly’s post about conquering email and noticed a commenter said she’d gotten hers under control - well, her work email. Her personal email was admittedly still a mess. I found myself wondering not about the woman’s organizational skills, but about how many email addresses she had.
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When I first started writing for Work It, Mom! back in November of 2008 (wow, that seems like a long time ago!), I was working in sales and marketing for a small business in Central Florida. I worked roughly 40 hours a week, commuted another 8, and earned a salary plus commissions for my time and efforts. I was confident I was happy and fulfilled in my work. In fact, my very first post here (and still my most popular) was a manifesto of sorts about why some moms work full time.

Three and a half years later, I am now working from my laptop as I travel across the country with my family. I have no office, co-workers, or commute. Also long gone are the days of a reliable salary.

There are days when I question the sanity of my decision to go rogue, to quit my grown-up job and hit the road. I still have two young children to provide for, after all, and my family’s standard of living - though it’s changed dramatically - still depends on my ability to earn money. My work continues to grant me the other benefits of working full time, but the income is as dynamic as my mailing address. I wonder on occasion if the forum commenters are right, if I’m being selfish and depriving my children of the security that comes from a normal life.
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It’s been one week since I decided to kick the laptop out of bed in an effort to bring a little more balance into my nomadic life. Yes, I work from a traveling home right now, but that doesn’t mean I have to work from bed, right?

Right.

So, how is my attempt to unplug from the matrix at night working out?

I’m about halfway there. Maybe a quarter of the way.
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As I type this, I’m sitting in the middle of my bed in our RV. I’m wearing the black leggings and tank top I put on underneath a black wrap dress when I got dressed in at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco two days ago. That outfit was cute, but two days of working from my bed later and, well, the smell is more of a concern than the appearance.
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I declared this the year of good health . I acknowledged that taking care of myself was better not only for my personal health and happiness, but for my business. I decided to start with small changes, like getting up and doing yoga every morning.

I made it five days in a row.

I don’t even know what happened. I have continued to go to bed at a decent time and get up early, but instead of doing a bit of stretching, I opened my computer and went to work right away one morning. By the time I realized what I’d done, I was pretty solidly into the flow and couldn’t tear myself away for 30 minutes of deep breathing and stretching. Before I knew it, a week and had gone by and I hadn’t so much as touched my toes.
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I asked my friends on Facebook to recommend a cleanse to start my 2012 off Gwyneth style.

I made a vision board that focused on health as a pathway to happiness.

I wrote about embracing the end of the year as a time to step back and relax, to regroup instead of moving forward.

So really, it’s my own fault that I spent about three weeks battling a combination of viruses I now refer to as the Iowa Plague. I basically asked to be knocked on my proverbial butt, forced to let work and my usual end-of-month organizing slide. My colon, I assure you, is cleansed.
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Here we go again: the kids are off of school and the rest of the world tries not to let that interfere with their non-vacation schedule. While I don’t recall my vacations being an inconvenience for anyone when I was a child, it seems every parent I know goes into full on scramble mode when holiday breaks leave children home during the week.

My children have been on break from their virtual school since last Friday. Fortunately, we’re visiting relatives in Iowa right now and the kids have been able to focus on spending time with loved ones instead of homework. Of course, I still have projects to finish up and deadlines to meet. Am I freaking out about my lack of routine?
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One of the things I appreciate about my lifestyle - that of a digital nomad who lives and works on the road full time - is that I am pretty much the boss of everything. I decide when I’ll work, play, and sleep. I pick which projects I’ll work on and which I’ll turn down. I get to choose whether I’ll accept or negotiate deadlines. I eat breakfast at noon if I want and have no consequences for spending the entire day in my pajamas. As you might imagine, it takes a fair amount of self discipline to keep this train on the tracks, what with no one waiting to tell me what to do.

I tend to keep that train moving by focusing first on activities that pay me. Specifically, I start my day with the highest paying tasks and move on down the list according to dollar amount and proximity of deadline. This perfectly sounds logical, yes?

Unfortunately, no one pays me to brush my teeth.
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I notice it every single year. Fall marks the end of summer, the beginning of the school year, and a flurry of productivity for me. And then, like clockwork, Halloween passes, the first chill sets in, and I’m much more interested in finding a new TV series to watch on Netflix than I am creating anything groundbreaking. The most productive thing I want to do is make Christmas lists and gifts. Work? Only because I have bills to pay.

When I worked in an office, this annual slump was managed by a list of daily tasks and a jovial attitude that said “come on, guys, you don’t want to work either!” I kept my bosses happy enough and enjoyed the security of a regular paycheck, confident that I’d focus more on getting ahead again when the new year had come.
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