Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Preparing for our cross country trip

This is currently the view out of our front window. And guess what?! It's all packed and ready to go! Except the girls clothes. And our clothes. Well, except for everyone's clothes. The only thing I've really packed in there yet is the dry food actually. I'm getting closer though, you should see the piles of clothes laying around the house waiting for mom to go through and give the "OK" on. No I will not take a pic of them.
This is what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks. My master plan. These are our bag-o-goodies for the trip (mine & the girls).
This is Karrah's bag. She has a homework binder (organized by state). Every state has two maps and a homework packet. I found famous people in the states & printed out information about them as we go through their state, she'll read about them and do science, vocabulary, and a spelling sheet daily. For math we'll give her oral problems about how much gas we used, populations of towns vs. other towns, how many miles from here to there, etc. Her journal (spiral notebook) will be wrote in every night about what we did, what she saw. She's got some books there to read and write book reports on; her own atlas to highlight the routes we take through each state; a box of pencils, crayons, sharpeners, & earbuds.
This is my binder. It is also divided by state. I have researched at least two things per state (OR, NV, AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, TN, the Carolina's, the Virginia's, NJ, NY, and DC), alot of the states have more like 6-8, to do that is free or cheap and printed out their info (location, hours of operation, cost) so we can fly by the seat of our pants. As much as the planner in me can do that anyways. I have a section in the back with my recipes that we'll be using in case I need to make more for the return trip home (see pic below for the food that we are bringing).
I made over 40 frozen crock-pot meals to take with us that will limit the amount of cooking in small spaces that I have to do. Thanks to crock pot liners & paper plates, it will also limit the amount of clean-up to be done in the small space. To read more about my freezer meals CLICK HERE.
This is d'Etes bag. She has quite a bit more than Karrah (and I need the teachers answer book if I am to correct her math). Basically the same stuff as Karrah's, but more science, some chemistry, and A LOT more math. I still feel so stressed that once we leave, I will have forgotten something :( Goes with the territory of taking a trip, I guess.
Marlene & Richard, you have blessed us beyond your imagination, thanks again, so very much! Mom & Dad, Uncle Ron & Aunt Candy, Laura & Sam, you guys have all contributed to this venture, thank you all! I'd just like to give a shout out to a great big AWESOME God too, he's pretty amazing, huh?!