I'm not entirely sure how long the term unplugging has been a thing.

It used to be (back in the day) that if you were told you to unplug it was because your parents were trying to save money on the leckie bill.

Someone once told my dad that if you unplugged the toaster, you'd save 5p on every bill.

But nowadays, the term unplugging comes with a whole new meaning.

Unplugging in 2020 means getting off the internet, stop watching so much telly and telling your son to look up from his phone so that his neck doesn't develop a permanent turtle shell shape.

Maybe I'm naive.

Or slightly twisted.

But when I found out that there was an organisation called Couchsurfing that would allow me to travel the world with my teenagers (for free) while meeting other like-minded people, I jumped at it.

Yes, it would mean that we'd be sleeping under the same roof of complete strangers, maybe even on a couch, but we'd get to know interesting people and listen to stories that I hadn't heard a thousand times before.

And who knows? They might even invite my teenagers to stay for a few years.

The funniest thing happened yesterday.

Because it was Father's Day, I said my husband that on this week's podcast episode we should talk about him being a homeschooling dad. Give some tips to all the other dads, husbands or partners out there that are currently faced with being a new homeschooling parent.

And guess what he said to me?

(Bearing in mind that our kids have been homeschooled for almost ten years).

He said: How can I talk about that? How can I give other guys homeschooling tips when it was you who did everything, and I just went to work?

If you are wondering how to balance homeschooling and working at the same time then you are in the right place.

Let's do an elbow bang.

I have been homeschooling for almost ten years, and for the second time in my homeschooling career, I find myself, once again, in the position of balancing homeschooling with earning some money.

Why I didn't marry a millionaire I'll never know.

My first attempt at homeschooling and working full time was a bloody disaster.

Awful.

I made lots of mistakes and ended up feeling like a squashed banana on a busy highway.

So this time around I made sure that I did things differently.

That's one of the benefits of homeschooling - you get to learn from your mistakes and then you become brilliant.

If you have always dreamt of living in New Zealand, are under 30 years old and have a bit of dosh saved up (enough to get you back to your own country) you can spend a year working in New Zealand by getting yourself a year-long working Visa.

That way you can see how you like it.

This week's podcast episode features Adam, a twenty-something chappy from the UK is doing just that.

After being persuaded by his mate to leave Thailand and come to New Zealand to work on a fairground, he got himself a year-long working visa and headed down under.

In the ten years that we have spent living in New Zealand, my family and I have never been glamping.

Not once.

Let's face it. It's not the sort of thing you want to do with two kids, is it?

But. With the kids now old enough to make their own beans on toast, Brian and I decided that it was time to check out what this New Zealand glamping craze was all about.

Get us a little bit of hippy outdoorsy fun.

And while we were there - glamping in New Zealand - we made a podcast episode for you. And wrote a post.

After all, what else would a husband and wife do when they find themselves alone without their kids for the first time in nineteen years??

This week's podcast is brought to you by me (Liz) and my husband Brian.

It is brought to you with love. And with wine and with sushi.

This is a different kind of podcast format from any other that we've done in the past (and, I won't lie, it was slightly scarier).

Brain and I will talk about what's on top for us right now. As parents. As husband and wife. As friends.

What share we are loving, what are we struggling with, and how we are dealing with both.

I wish I'd read a post or listened to a Podcast like this when we were looking to move to New Zealand ten years ago.

At least then I would have been prepared. I could have packed a hot water bottle and a sun hat and some hankies.

But I didn't.

Instead, I got to the other side of the world and blubbed for six months about how my family never returned my calls and that the bathroom in the house that we were renting was cold and smelly and damp.

New Zealand. Is there any better place?

I'm not a doom and gloomer. No sir. Not me.

My family and I have been living in New Zealand for almost a decade. We love it. New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth and raising my kids in New Zealand was the best decision we ever made.

Last week I received this email.

"Hi. I am thinking of moving to New Zealand with my family but I am concerned that as we are moving from the UK, my eldest son (who is 12) will be bored. Could you give me any advice?"

I have two kids, a boy age 18 (note to oneself, must stop calling him a kid) and a daughter who is 15.

We have been living in New Zealand for almost eleven years. We emigrated from the UK for a better way of life.

And yes.

We found it.

If you had to pick just a few, which would you say were the most beautiful places in the World to visit?

This is a question that our family hears a lot when we tell how we spent twelve months travelling the world together (two adults and two teenagers) on a budget.

We visited thirty-three countries in total - all of them magnificent but some being crowned more beautiful than others.

This is part two of a podcast that my son (Sonny) and I made. We couldn't fit every beautiful place in the world into one post so we decided to treat you to two smaller bite-sized portions!