vacation

Unusual Sanity-Savers for Mom

Juli

I don’t do much in the “usual” fashion – mothering, or the rest of my life.

So “normal” moms might do things like spa days, girls’ nights, color-coding… that’s not my jam.  Here are some sanity-savers I use in my house that might be more eccentric.

tea and lavender - unusual sanity savers for moms

I don’t fold half the laundry.

Seriously, why?  Have you ever stopped to consider WHY you fold laundry?
Some things get wrinkly if they’re not folded – fine.  But my underwear?  My toddler’s socks?  The washcloths? None of that needs folding, truly, and it saves so much time not to!  I don’t fold my pants and shirts, either; I hang them up.

Afternoon coffee.

My 4-year-old is an early bird, and I am definitely NOT.  So a peaceful cup of morning coffee sans-kiddos is not ever going to happen in my life.
Instead, I take my big huge mug of coffee during nap time in the afternoon.  Then I can truly sit down and unwind without any crazy background antics going on.  For maximum effect, take with a healthy portion of chocolate.

Dum Dums

Yes, I dare to give my kids artificial colors and flavors and sugars, in the middle of 2018 parenting.  If I have an important errand to run, or something goes long, or it would be very inappropriate to deal with a meltdown (Good Friday church, for example) I hand my little boys Dum Dum suckers and say a little prayer for the health of their teeth.  It keeps them quiet for about ten minutes, so maybe I can use my brain to figure out something in a store, or can deal with a car repair, or can make a phone call.

Subscriptions

I can’t be bothered to remember things like razors and shaving cream so I use Dollar Shave Club.

I can’t remember diapers and wipes, either (nor can I fit them in a cart with three small children!) so I have them automatically shipped from Target and Amazon, respectively.  Also on my Amazon subscriptions are such gems as pee mats for the dog, dishwasher tabs, my tea, mascara, and M&Ms.  Not kidding.

There are subscription services for so many things these days – even clothing and shoes, if you find you don’t have time or desire to keep up with clothing yourself.  Whatever you can take off your plate for no or small additional cost, go for it!

Extremely Routine Meal Planning

I serve the same kind of food on the same day of the week, every week.

Sunday: Something using the fresh groceries (experiment new recipe night)
Monday: Rice, meat, veggie
Tuesday: Tacos (or nachos, quesadillas, etc)
Wednesday: Pasta
Thursday: Sandwiches or Breakfast for dinner
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Pasta

Every. Single. Week.  Meal planning saves you from thinking about meals at 4 pm: my way saves me from thinking about meal planning.  I can vary things like meats and vegetables and sauces based on what was on sale at the grocery store, but the framework is there.  My kids enjoy it, too, since they always know what’s for dinner.

Extremely Routine Entertaining / Vacationing

I throw the same parties, over and over.  Every single 4th of July, I throw an identical party with the same food, same beverages, same lawn games.  Every Christmas gathering I throw is the same, every year.  Every kids’ first birthday party has the same food and cake, just decorated differently around a loose theme (but every theme is a children’s book, so still very similar!)

Every group vacation, I bring the same food and entertainment to contribute.  Every camping trip, we plan and eat the same food.  I even pack the same clothes for any vacation of similar temperature.

I even do identical activities every Advent with my family, every Hanukkah season, etc.  I make the same treats to share every holiday season.  Holiday traditions are secretly easy ways to have fun without thinking too hard.

These parties, vacations, etc are only planned once a year, so it’s not super repetitious or obvious that I’m doing the same thing as last year.  I keep permanent lists for packing and grocery shopping, permanent record of how many batches I need to bake, how many paper goods to have on hand, the whole nine yards.  When the event or trip is coming up, I whip out my lists and just do the same thing I did last time.

With all those tips, am I totally sane now?

Of course not.  I have four kids – I am obviously nuts.  But at least I can keep some of the crazies at bay, find a few minutes of me-time, and celebrate events without being completely berserk.  Worth it!

Anything unusual you do to keep your sanity?  Share!

 

Road Trip: Travel Games

Deb

As you plan for a road trip, entertaining your kids can be a hassle. Our family at home tries to have our kids entertain themselves as much as possible. In the car this can be a little trickier because of the limited number of resources your children have at their disposal. A little pre-planning on your part can go a long way in helping your kids still be able to entertain themselves in the car. Here are some of my favorite no electronic in the car games you can play with your kids or even as an adult to help pass the travel time.

I Spy

My kids love to play this to the point that it almost becomes annoying. Remember the moose in Brother Bear? Anyway here’s how you play. Someone starts by saying “I spy…” and then describing the color or shape of an object. The other people try to guess what object the person is describing. The person who guesses it correctly gets to ask the next question.

Counting

My oldest two kids are old enough to count or recognize different objects. My daughter has done this in the past with airport signs. She’ll watch for the airplane on road signs and count how many she sees in a given town. This can be done with anything. Maybe your driving through a slow construction zone. You could count how many workers you see, you can count how many trucks or construction vehicles you see. Maybe over the course of the whole trip your going to count how many motorcycles you see. This can done as a family or competitively between family members to see who saw the most.

Reading the Map

Similar to the counting game this game can be played individually or as a family. With three days of driving our kids of course are going to ask, “Are we there yet?” If they are old enough to look at a map or read road signs this may help with some of those questions. Before you leave, show your child a map of the journey you are taking. Talk about the different roads you will go on, the different states you will be driving through, and even some of the cities you will be seeing, again this all depends on the age of the child.  Something I’m going to try to do this year is make a list of the major cities we are going through and have the number of miles to our destination after them. Then my oldest can follow along with the list of cities and know where we are in our journey instead of having to ask, “Are we there yet?” she will be able to see how far we still need to go.

Dimes

This was a suggestion from a friend and last year our oldest was still a little young, but this year it worked a lot better. Here’s how it works,  you get a roll of dimes from the bank and give it to the child. (We found a sandwich bag worked well.) You tell them that the five dollars is their money to spend at your destination, but they can also lose the money along the trip for specific reasons. Last year for us it was asking, “Are we there yet?” or having to be told repeatedly to stop some noise or activity. If your child commits one of these errors then they give you a dime. They get to spend whatever is left when you arrive at your destination.

License Plates

I’ve played this since I was young and still do now even though my kids aren’t quite old enough to participate yet. Again this game can be played as a family or competitively. It is pretty simple. You look for different license plates and you write them down as you see them with the goal being to see all fifty states or the most of anyone playing the game. You can put whatever rules you want on how you find the plates. Maybe you want to limit it to only when you are on the road, or you can’t use the plates off of semi-trailers. Modify it to fit your family. Bonus points to the person who sees all the Canadian Provinces, or cars from other countries.

Competitive Scavenger Hunts and List Making

These last two games are very similar. They both take a little bit of prep work before getting in the car. If this is a road trip you’ve been on a few times, pick out some of the unique things you know you will see along the trip. If it’s one you haven’t taken before pick generic things you know you will see along the way. To play a scavenger hunt make a specific list of things and numbers of things the passengers in your car needs to see before the end of the trip. Another way to play (I call it list making) is to write up descriptions for things to see along the trip. The people playing would then write down a location or name of an item that meets that description given in the list. Again the goal would be to finish the list first or before the end of the trip. Example List

Many of these games run along the same lines of looking for things while driving, but having a purpose for the watching you do while driving may turn the activity into enough of a game to make the time go faster. You don’t have to play a game the whole trip, but could set limits like between certain stops or just one of the days of travel. Have you played any of these games with your family. Do you have other games you play with family in the car on road trips? Leave your answers in the comments below.

 

Road Trip: Entertainment in the Car

Deb

Three kids in the back of your car. Going on hour 30 of 38 that you have been driving. How do you keep your sanity? In my family, I’m hoping they are all mid-nap, but rarely do all three of my kids sleep at the same time. We’ve found some ways to help keep the peace in the backseat while still maintaining our own sanity.

Toys

With the three days of travel, we end up stopping at fast food places along the way. Our kids, as most kids their age, are big fans of kid’s meals, and what comes with a kid’s meal but a toy.  Instead of taking these toys into our house after our trip, where they are discarded and soon lost, we put them in a bag that only comes out for long car rides. This solves two problems, one that I don’t want to buy new toys to entertain my kids on each long car ride and two the toys although old are still use so rarely that the kids are engaged with them longer than if I just brought toys they play with at home. Another positive to these toys is that rarely do they make noise and if they do they are usually very loud.

Screen Time

Electronics get suggested many times for car trips with kids. Even as adults something that holds your attention one day may be uninteresting and boring the next. To try to prevent this fatigue, we don’t allow our kids to have any electronics until at least the second day of travel. We have found that the toys and other things we bring do a good job of entertaining the kids for the first day and into the second. We try to limit their screen time at home in the week before we leave also. This gives them the idea that screen time is a treat and holds their attention longer when they actually get to use it.

Crayons, Coloring Books, Workbooks, etc.

My oldest is getting old enough where she can be entertained with reading in the car (though this may not last long, so far we have avoided motion sickness but signs are not good for her). She also likes to do simple worksheets from her summer education workbook. My middle child likes to color. One word of caution on coloring though is to make sure your child won’t color on your car interior, or you could have crayons or markers that only color on allowable surfaces.

Games

Many adults remember playing games with their families while riding in the car as young children. Some of our favorites with young children have been I Spy, counting games, and finding road signs. Some games I look forward to playing with my kids as they get older and more able to participate are the License Plate Game, Competitive Scavenger hunts, and Making list with certain criteria. If you want more information on any of these games see the post about Travel Games.

Packing the Car

It’s great to have all these activities for kids to do while driving in the car, but one last thing to think about while you plan your travels is how to pack your car. All of our kids are still required to ride in car seats and some of them in harnessed car seats. As most of you know this really limits their mobility especially if they drop something. We try to make everything accessible to them even with this limited mobility. Our oldest is a booster seat which makes it easier for her to move and get things that get dropped or hand things to her siblings but still there is only so much you can do from your seat in the car.

We try to keep two bags of stuff for our kids when travelling. One of the bags was mentioned before. It has the kid’s meal toys in it. The other bag has the drawing supplies and any books we bring on the trip. These two bags are usually placed on the seat between out two oldest children. They are easily able to reach the bags and have access to what they want as we go along. We try to refill the bags every time we stop, because toys still get dropped or end up out of reach. The same goes with the I-pad. We only allow them to use it after a stop so we can set up the movie or game for them to do. Our youngest is usually good with just one or two toys that she is able to keep in her car seat.

I hope this has given you some ideas of how to entertain your child in the car on those long summer road trips. Do you have any tried and true tips or tricks for traveling in the car with your little ones. Let us know in the comments below.

 

Road trip: Planning Stops and Meals

Deb

It is summer and that means travel season. For many families this can be a dreaded drive in the car with young children. For my family it means our annual three day drive to California to visit my husband’s family. Now three days stuck in your car is not pleasant for anyone even just by yourself, but put three kids in the back, 6 and under, and it becomes a little more chaotic. So how do we keep our sanity?

Set Rules for Stopping that Everyone can Abide by

Each year, before we set off on our road trip, my husband and I discuss what our stopping rules are. Last year when we traveled, we had a 2 month old (who was nursing), 2 year old, and 5 year old. Our rule when we traveled was that we only stop to feed the baby.  This meant that we had to monitor liquid intake on everyone so those emergency bathroom breaks weren’t necessary. It also meant that we needed car snacks to get us through hunger if it struck while the baby was napping or content in her car seat.

This year we have a 1 year old, 3 year old, and 6 year old. Our stopping rule for this year is for food (meals). We plan to stop only around meal times. This is so when we do stop we are able to stop for an extended period time to let everyone get out and stretch. Even with only stopping for food, we still still be stop every three to four hours.

We find that the three days seem to take even longer if we don’t have a plan to stop. We have even found ourselves stopping every hour and a half at times, which when you stop with three kids is at least a half an hour stop just getting everyone in and out of the car let alone using the restroom or stretching. If we limit ourselves to stopping for set reasons, we are able to have longer stops and still feel like we are getting to where we want to go in a decent amount of time.

Where to Stop

So you know when your stopping, but now you need to decide where to stop. We like to stop at places where our kids can run off energy and also accomplish the purpose of the stop (eating).  We will try to make our stops at places where our kids can freely run around. This may mean a Fast Food restaurant with a play place, a rest stop, or even trying to find a park not too far off the freeway.

How to Stop

We have a routine we follow whenever we stop. It’s many times a plan of divide and conquer. Usually who gets to go first is the adult that needs to use the bathroom the most. For example, I may be using the restroom first so I would take our 6 year old daughter with me. We would head into the restroom at whatever location we stopped at. My husband would be releasing our other two children from car seats. I would bring our daughter and myself back to the car, grab the 1 year old, while he and our son would go use the facilities. If this is at a restaurant, I would be figuring out what the kids and I would be eating. If this is at a rest stop, I would be getting out the food and supplies, we had brought along with us, and getting ready to eat.

When we stop for food, there are a few things we try to do in order to preserve our sanity and well-being. We tend to feel pretty crappy if all we do is eat fast food for three days. The first day or so we try to carry at least one meal a day with us. After that food is gone, we try to stop once a day at an actual sit down restaurant.  We do this so we are able to order vegetables or fruit. When we stop at places where the kids can play, we try to let them play the whole time we are stopped. They eat when we get back in the car so they get as much energy out as possible. If we have to stop someplace where there is no place for them to safely run and play, we try to go for a walk before getting back in the car. (We try not to have this happen.)

 

 

 

 

Road trips: Driving Overnight

Deb

Wisconsin to California. This is our yearly vacation plan. My in-laws live in  California and with that comes some interesting discussions in my family. We have flown, driven without stopping for the night, and taken three days with some rather small children to make this trip. This past summer was no different. Starting in January we began to make plans for our trip. My husband only gets two weeks of vacation, so getting to and from California as quickly and safely as possible is always the goal. Flying is really too expensive now with five of us, so driving is where we started planning. We realized that it would be faster to leave on a Sunday afternoon then to wait for Monday morning and so the plan was hatched to drive through the night on Sunday. We survived but we did learn some things along the way.

Stop to Sleep

Now this may not sound like the way to drive thru the night. We found as we traveled deeper into the night that it got harder and harder to stay awake, which I mean makes sense. As this happened more and more we decided to pull over for an hour or so to try to take a nap as best we could. We found a well lit parking lot and tried to get some sleep. This was the best thing we could have done. When we pulled out of the parking lot an hour and a half later, we felt rested and much more ready to tackle a few more miles on the road. If your planning a trip that has you driving through the night, give yourself a break. Allow yourself the freedom to take a catnap along the way.

Crunchy Snacks/Caffeinated Beverages

Once the sun goes down and your driving in the dark, having something for your mouth to do can help you stay awake. We had made our own trail mix and pretzel mix before we left. We enjoyed these snacks throughout the night. We also bought Monster energy drinks and had some caffeinated soda in our travel mugs from the last gas station. Plan snacks that maybe aren’t something you would get normally so it is a special treat.  It makes the trip have a little bit of fun, while having a duel purpose of helping you stay awake.

Pillows/Blankets

Not for the driver, but for the passengers. We had three young children in the back of our vehicle. we wanted them to sleep through the night as much as possible. Because of this yearly trip our kids get a child sized neck pillow on their first birthday. We also took along car sized blankets for them to cover up with. Not only do these work as comfort items and to help with keeping the kids warm. It helps to give a routine to set a sleep time. On the last stop before we wanted them actually go to sleep for awhile we actually sort of tuck them into their car seats for the night.

Be Ready for Anything

Be flexible. Realize that this may not work the way you wanted it to. During this 30 hour driving marathon we actually ended up getting a flat tire pretty much in the middle of no where. The kids ended up eating breakfast on the side of the road while my husband and I (mostly my husband) changed the tire so we could continue on our journey.

What are some ways you have made travelling with kids bearable? have you found any secrets that have made different parts of your trip more enjoyable or things you may never try again? Leave a comment below.

Bringing Vacation Home

admin

Is there such a thing as an adult who does not enjoy vacation?
I went on a little New Years’ getaway with my husband and our best friends, and I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes vacation so wonderful, and how to incorporate some of that into my daily life.  I’ve come upon a few different concepts.

From our recent vacation – relaxing in the middle of nowhere.

Relaxing, minimalist environment
Think about what made the vacation so relaxing.  Was it that your space was clean?  That you were living with just a suitcase of possessions and no clutter?  Odds are good you were even living in a significantly smaller space than usual, possibly even with extra people, yet the hotel room/cabin/condo was relaxing.
This is great to replicate at home!  Living with fewer possessions naturally helps your space stay cleaner.  I will forever be indebted to the Kon Mari method of decluttering for making my home more peaceful and easier to keep picked up.  Consider a capsule wardrobe to replicate the limited options of a suitcase (and the ease of dressing that comes with it!)

Fresh linens
That may seem super small, but really.  When’s the last time you changed your sheets and washed your throw blankets and bleached your towels? (I keep white towels for this reason.)  Try it, and really pay attention to the sensation of sinking into fresh linens – savor it!  (By extension, all your nicely folded laundry in your suitcase?  Ey?) If you find this as valuable as I do, plan it into your housekeeping!

Pre-planned activities
Now, this is probably personal preference,  but I usually  have some pre-planned activities on vacation.  On this recent vacation, we brought along decks of cards to play our favorite game, one board game the husbands specifically like, and books and facemasks for the wives.  Nothing fancy, nothing that involved leaving the couch.  The aspect of this that makes the day so enjoyable is that there was no sitting around saying, “What should we do?  I dunno.  What do you want to do?  I dunno.”
Consider planning your leisure once you’re back home – would you like to read a book in the evenings? Journal in the mornings?  Have a family movie night?  I have actually taken to pre-planning my leisure activities for my miracle mornings and for my evenings after the kids go to bed, and it’s great.

Personal growth time
Like I said, this recent vacation included intentional book-reading.  For me, leisure reading is a part of self care and personal growth, because I truly love reading (like in the depths of my soul, love, reading.  #nerd)
Odds are good that during a vacation, you take more time for these kinds of activities.  Perhaps hiking is your personal growth.  Maybe meditating.  Some people probably experience personal growth by touring important landmarks or museums.  Whatever it is that feeds your spirit, you’ve probably made up your mind and planned to do it during your official vacation.
You should really do that kind of stuff during your regular days.  Seriously.

Moments of complete stillness
There are moments in vacation where absolutely nothing is going on.  Nothing is calling your attention.  Nothing needs to be cleaned or cooked or put away.  Those moments may be in an art gallery, in your hotel room in the wee hours, sitting on a beach kid-free, or doing a face mask on a couch while your husbands play a board game.
See if you can recreate those moments in your daily home life.  For me, those moments exist at 6:00 am (after my husband has left for work, my kids are still soundly asleep, and I’m alone in my office with a cup of coffee) but you can jam them anywhere.  On a commute using public transport, on a walk, etc.

Pick one thing to try – make your daily life more like a vacation.  Maybe commit to it for 2 weeks.  Write it down.  Plan it out. 
Share what you’re going to try or what you already do!

P.S. – we used Air BnB to book our vacation, and it worked like a charm!  I even got email copies of text messages sent by our host.  Recommend!
(Not sponsered.  I wish!)