Learning to "wing it"

It seems as if we are finally emerging from our sickness. Jeremiah slept the whole night through last night without a coughing fit. That seems like such a simple sentence, but his coughing fits were so bad and frequent that I knew he wasn't getting good rest at night. I still get exhausted pretty quickly, but I can tell that my antibiotics are finally kicking in. We are looking forward to packing up the van and heading north on Sunday. 

But oh.my.goodness this is the most unprepared I have been for a trip ever.

Usually I start preparing for a trip weeks in advance. I make lists and start gathering things I think we will need. If we are traveling by car I usually bake healthy snacks for the road. I usually clean the house from top to bottom because I hate coming home from vacation to a cluttered, dirty house. 

This time we are going to wing it. Which goes absolutely against my nature.

This week I ditched the lists and the plans because my priority was rest. We needed to all get better if we are going to actually enjoy our trip. So I am digging up enough clean clothes to pack today. We got some coupons for Chick-fil-A and I think I have enough granola bars in the pantry to fill in for snack time. We will definitely be closing the door on a messy house when we head out.

Thankfully the boys are older so winging it comes a bit easier. Some friends have let us borrow a portable DVD player for the van and we have a few new books and toys. They are better at sitting still and entertaining themselves. As for eating, thankfully we are past the feed every 2 hours stage so as long as we know where Chick-fil-A is along the way I think we will manage just fine. And honestly, if we forget something important we can pick it up at a store because Philadelphia has stores too! Imagine!

I realized this week that in the past, every time we have gone on a trip I stress and obsess but it always ends up being ok. Most of the time it ends up being better than ok, it ends up being great! So we will rest more today, do some last minute things tomorrow, and then hit the road! Our family is waiting at the other end and getting there to spend time with them is truly all that matters!