Getting Ready

Less than a week from today I will be basking in the Florida sunshine.  I can't believe it! 

As we have saved all our Christmas money, birthday money and side jobs who paid cash money over the past couple months to cover our incidental expenses while we are gone, I am in awe of what a gift this trip is.  I truly can't imagine how we would ever take this trip if I hadn't won it from Family Circle Magazine.  We love to travel but have never had the discipline to actually save significant money for vacations.  As a result we do weekend camping trips or stay at friends cabins.  We have only taken a full week vacation twice since Jake was in Kindergarten.  One was a trip to California and Disneyland, the other was our Kenya trip a couple years ago.  So spending 8 days in Florida in the middle of winter is a pretty big deal for us.

As with everything we do these days, my working changes the way we prepare for a trip.  Normally I would wait until Thursday or Friday to pull out suitcases and would spend an entire day preparing the family for the trip, pulling out our more summery clothes,doing laundry, shopping for supplies and, of course, cleaning the house because I hate leaving a dirty house and hate more coming home to a dirty house. 

Instead, I will spend much of today, Sunday a week before the trip, pulling out suitcases and pulling down the summer clothes from Isabelle's closet.  I will be trusting Jake and John to help with the house cleaning this week because we all know, "if mama ain't happy, nobody happy".  And throughout the week the suitcases will sit open in our bedrooms as we slowly fill them up one day at a time.

Just one more thing we are learning to do different now that I am working.  But nearly 8 months into my working full time I am really seeing the family begin to work together and get things done.  It is hard at times to let go of control and share responsibilities but each time I do I am blessed.  So I am confident when we get on the airplane next Saturday we will be fully ready for the adventure that awaits us.