I’m leaving on a jet plane…

…to spend a week sailing around the Greek islands on this.

Without the kids.

Earlier this year I was invited to spend a few days aboard a 16-passenger Turkish gulet as part of a select few to participate in a fitness retreat on the Mediterranean waters with MDF Voyage. Can you imagine how difficult it is to have to decline an invitation like that? Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you want to look at it), we were already travelling so it was with great sadness and many exclamations of ‘I don’t believe it!’ that I had to refuse.

A couple of months later I received another email offering me a selection of dates to choose from. Could I make any of them this time?

Hell, yeah!

So this weekend has been spent tying up my preparations to leave early on Tuesday where I’ll be checking into a hotel in Rhodes for the night before meeting up with the rest of group – and I’ve no idea who they are yet – before we spend seven days and eight nights sailing around several Greek islands – and a quick nip over to Turkey for a hammam visit too.

Oh yes!

I was wondering how I would write my intro post to the trip. I know that I am very probably expected to write about how much I don’t want to leave my family behind and how nervous I am about leaving Mike to it. I know that I’m probably supposed to write about how much I will miss them and how guilty I feel about going on this amazing trip.

But I won’t.

My oldest child is amost 23. My youngest is 18 months-old. I have eleven children in between. I have worked while I have raised them all the while without family support or outside childcare. Mike and I juggled it all. In all those years I have spent three nights away from them for work purposes. That’s apart from the nights I’ve been in hospital delivering a sibling, of course, which kind of bumps the figure up a bit but really isn’t along the same lines at all, is it?

Truth be told, I’m really looking forward to it.

Like, I’m really looking forward to it.

I’m looking forward to trying out some of this ‘me-time’ I have heard so much about. I am looking forward to having a chance to miss them and for them to miss me because working from home and home educating is both good and bad. The good: you’re together all the time. The bad: you’re together all the time. And after 23 years of constantly being here for everyone all the time, I think it’s a good time to give them the opportunity to miss me a while. Yep, I’m going on this fabulous trip for their sakes – I’m selfless like that 😉

And I know I’ll miss them. But I will enjoy the peace too. I don’t worry about Mike holding fort because he is more than capable of doing anything I can do. And while I get to top-up my solar-powered self with a trip to the Med, he gets to enjoy a whale-watching, Northern Light seeing holiday in Iceland with Cait in November. And that will kind of even out my ouz0-drinking, calamari-eating, sun-seeking, swimming and hiking-enjoying trip.

Almost.

So, Greece here I come!

Opa!

Photo Credit: I borrowed the image from the MDF Voyage website. I’ll be sharing loads of my own pics soon, no doubt!