6 Easy Steps to Packing for a Kid-Friendly Family Road Trip Vacation

One of the most common reasons people with kids give for not taking a family road trip is the dread you feel just imagining how much work it is going to be to pack the car.  Having taken MANY road trips with our kids, totaling more than 20,000 miles with our own children over the years, I can tell you that it is possible to make sure you have everything you need and not become insane in the process.

Here are 6 Simple Steps to help you  fight that feeling of wanting to run packing, pun intended.

1. PLAN at least six months ahead. You don't need to know the details that far in advance but you should at least have the exact dates blocked out on your calendar when you plan to be away and at least an inkling of a notion of your vacation destination. Afterall, one of the best things about road trips is all the anticipation.

2. ABOUT a month before the actual trip you need to start packing. First, print out this blog to refer to. Then, check to see which items you think you will need that you already have and what you will need to buy. Think about where you are going and what you'll be doing, the weather possibilities along the way to help you plan.  Do any shopping NOW, don't wait till a week before your trip, unless you enjoy being stressed out.

A Family Trip to Gatorland in Orlando, Florida

3. TRAVEL as lightly as possible. Another mistake families make before they have even pulled out of the driveway for a trip is overpacking.  I know you are thinking: I have to bring all this stuff because the kids need extra clothes because they are always getting dirty.  You'd also argue that little ones need lots of equipment when travel such as strollers, car seats, feeding chairs etc.  The truth is, it's really quite simple: bring as few sets of clothes per person as possible and remember that you don't always have to change the kids' shirts if they have a few spots on them. You also should think multi-tasking when you pack. In other words, when it comes to bulky items, like kid equipment, don't bring a stroller AND a feeding chair; why not just bring a foldable umbrella stroller and also let that double as a booster seat for mealtimes?

4.  TODDLERS can help you pack, believe it or not.  About two weeks before, get everyone to pack their own busy bags for the car using either a back pack or tiny sleepover bag.  The only requirement is that it be small enough so they can carry it themselves when it is full.  Encourage children to pack whatever they want to bring in this bag. The general rule is let the kids pack it, if it will fit in their bags, but make sure they understand that mom or dad have editing privileges over everything they are bringing and our decision cannot be challenged by the Supreme Court.

5.  A week before your trip set out the suitcases you will be using and start filling them up as you check the needed items off the packing list.  From now on, wear only clothing that you will not be bringing on the trip, so you are not doing laundry at midnight the night before you leave.  Avoid using hard sided luggage or large and bulky carrying bags which are more costly and heavier. Instead, try to use soft-sided baggage and duffle bags since these collapse more when you are trying to squeeze everything in to your car's trunk and/or interior. These types of bags are lighter too, which makes them easy to lift up and down off the roof if that is where you'll be carrying them. And better yet, the bags will often be light enough for the kids to carry themselves into the motel each night!

6.  A few days before the trip, actually get your car packed with things that will not be affected if it gets extremely cold or hot outside.  Pack solidly and logically, thinking about things you will need the most access to and packing those within reach, while stowing the items you won't much or if at all until till you reach your destination.  I speak from true experience on this last one, because we had to bring CASES of diapers when traveling before our 4 kids (triplets, now 12, and big brother, 13) were potty trained and it didn't take us long to figure out that we only needed to access one case at a time.

If you do all those things, you'll have enough energy the morning of your trip to pack an ice chest with cold drinks and food.  More importantly, you'll be able to give your undivided attention to the inevitable tantrums and sibling fights that will break out before you've even locked your front door. Gotta go, now, I think I hear my two girls warming up for a boxing match.

Coming this week: Another post where I'll give you my handy, original Family Packing List

The Answer to I DON'T know what to make for Dinner

5 Easy Steps to Decide What to Cook for Family Dinner When Your Mind Goes Blank
by Janis Brett Elspas, The Mommy Blog Expert


Not knowing what to make for dinner happens to us all. What do you do when it strikes you? Follow these Easy Steps: 1) Look in your frig or freezer for a protein source 2) Check your pantry and frig for anything else that might go with it 3) Go online to your favorite recipe website and search for an idea based on ingredients 4) Spice things up...make sure you always have a stock of at least the basic spices of salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, basil, oregano, etc. 5) Surprise your family with a quick, healthy, meal they will love, and sit back and enjoy the rave reviews.


If you're like me--a busy mom or dad--who cooks for their family seven nights a week, you know what I'm talking about here. It's that dreaded moment when its getting close to dinner time and you haven't a clue as to what to make for dinner tonight. You know what I mean.  You are REALLY stuck, with less than 2 hours before dinner needs to be on the table for your family, and you are clueless. And, not to ramp up the pressure, you've got ornery tweens or teens in the house who are constantly hungry and, within the next 30 minutes, the a kid needs to be driven to a music lesson (or some other place you must take them by car at a scheduled, but inopportune time).


What to do? It's too late and there's not enough time or money to order take out tonight. Good try though!  First of all, DON'T FREAK OUT and don't crack open the hard liquor just yet.  You don't always have to tell your darling family to eat cereal with milk for dinner like I sometimes do, bad mommy that I am.  There is a better way, and I'm about to give you some real good advice that might save your sanity tonight, so read on to find out.


We've already established this first option isn't going to help.  PLAN A: Take out (or buying an unhealthy frozen entree at the supermarket) for tonite is already out of the question because it will be less expensive to make and serve dinner at home.



PLAN B: Instead, let's see what you have in your house that you might make a great, healthful meal out of.  Assuming you don't have any fresh or frozen left overs to pass off as a freshly cooked meal (we are all guilty of that one, heh, heh), take a look in your freezer for a protein source (meat, poultry, fish, or even Tofu!) to make the main course with.  I don't have much in my ice box this late afternoon, but I DID find a lump of 1-1/2 pounds of frozen cubed beef stashed in the back that is a couple of month old. Guess I better use that to feed the family tonight, because you can't keep stuff in the freezer forever.


The next step is to deal with whatever you dig out and get creative.  The aforementioned beef still doesn't look too appetizing to me (kinda gray actually in color, but still edible) even after I defrost it in the microwave for five minutes but I will make do.  I've got to disguise this in some way, so I pull out my trusty Cuisinart Food Processor that I received for my wedding more than two decades ago.  Luckily it still works fairly well, (I'm still hoping for a new Kitchen Aid to suddenly appear in my kitchen one day, though) so I make some fresh ground beef in 30 seconds, just by processing the blocks of beef in the processor. 


Onto the next challenge. What now? After you've got your protein looking decent (not wearing clothes, of course) you've got to do something with it to make it interesting, since your family will go on strike if they see this now.  Your next stop should be your refrigerator and/or your pantry to see what ingredients you have on hand that can quickly be turned into a gourmet home-cooked family meal (or at least masquerades as one, LOL).  In the bottom of the vegetable bin in the frig I find some wilted celery stalks, not moldy but not looking bright green either, and also a half an onion -- hey, I am getting somewhere, I think.  Next, I look back in the freezer for frozen vegetables and there I see a half-used bag of C and W brand corn, so I nab that without knowing what I'll do next.

Now what? Time to take a computer break.  So, I go online and quickly find a recipe that I know will be fast to prepare and will cook in an hour or less.  If you are as disorganized as I am, BTW, there is no way you are going to find the torn-out magazine recipe you used last time.  We are talking a lot of disarrayed paper here, since I'm a charter subscriber to Martha Stewart's Living magazine, which I believe came out around 20 years ago.  

I decide to visit my favorite go-to recipe resource when I can't find the one I "filed," who's always there for me, 24/7  Martha Stewart.com  There, I've never fail to find ideas about what to do with my meager rations that I must magically transform into a meal for six.  May I remind you:  my family includes two adults and 4 Tweens (12 year old triplets, plus a 13 year old) and they all are skinny and almost always eat like horses?  Another great resource to go to that I use sometimes and recommend when I don't know what meal I should prepare is the DinnerTool website, which provides some excellent ideas on how to work with ingredients that I already have on hand.


In less than a minute I've done an advanced search for "ground beef" on my reliable friend Martha's site (I did meet her once at a book signing for her book on Homekeeping when she came to California).  Voila! I'm on the site for less than a minute before I discover a Tamale Pie recipe that sounds good AND is quick, AND is a one-pot meal.  

Lucky me, all the ingredients the recipe requires (like cumin, corn meal, and olive oil) I already have on hand, thanks to my well-stocked pantry and spice collection (Martha, you are my inspiration for all this, you know).  This dish is a breeze to put together and before you know it I pop it in the oven. With about an hour cooking time, I run my daughter to her violin lesson.  Miraculously, with all the chaos, I still have dinner ready ON-TIME and dear hubbie and the kids sit down to eat.  From the first bite, the meal's result is amazing and there are compliments all around our dinner table.  I sit there smiling smugly, thinking it really wasn't that hard.  It was easy as pie, in this case Tamale Pie!


Epilogue:  Now, it time for me to do the dishes by hand since our dishwasher hasn't worked since we moved into this house many years ago.  But, that's not going to stop me from wishing for a new dishwasher.   Did I mention that our full-size double oven doesn't operate either? Or, for the last four years, that instead I have been using my handy Hamilton Beach counter top single convection oven for all my family baking?


Actually, now that we're on the subject, I'd love to just remodel my entire kitchen.  But that's for another blog post about another story that has yet to be written...

50+ Los Angeles & So Calif. World-Class Museums will be FREE

It doesn't get any better than this...

More than 50 Southern California world-class museums in the Los Angeles metro area and Orange County will be FREE tomorrow, September 26, 2009.

Also, 24+ FREE-FOR-ALL museums will be absolutely admission free the Entire Weekend of October 3-4, 2009!

Get the complete list of these no-cost venues for both tomorrow and next weekend here http://tinyurl.com/ydaej34

With many museums charging $10 and up per person, think of how much money you could save by taking your family to one of these.