My family and I are getting ready to go on a vacation. It is something that has been in the works for over a year. We are going to be making the journey with my wife’s mom, brother, sister-in-law, and their two kids. A combined total of 9 of us! I am blessed in that I get along with my wife’s side of the family very well and this is not our first vacation together.
As with any trip we take, planning is involved. Because of where we are going and the fact that it is more that just our family, A LOT of planning has been involved! Where we were going to go, how long were we going to be gone, what things to we want to do when we are gone, flights, hotels, taxis, etc…all of this had to be planned. Over the course of the past year, I would say we have spent at least six hours among our group getting ready for this trip. We would see each other at events and talk about it, we would text each other about things, heck in March we all got together for 3 hours and had dinner at my brother-in-law’s house just to talk about this trip.
Putting aside the stuff we had to plan together as a group, there have been numerous things we have had to plan just for ourselves and our individual families. Some of things include: who will watch our house while we are gone, who will cut our grass while we are gone, make sure we stop our mail, buy enough toiletries including sunscreen for everyone, dropping-off our dog at the vet to be boarded while we are gone, have someone reputable watch our guinea pig, buying raincoats, and having good luggage that will not break on us during the trip. Some of you are probably getting a headache just reading all of this.
The good news is that all of this has not been a big headache because we have done everything we can to make sure we have everything we need for the trip. Every time my wife and I thought of something, we told the other and wrote it down. In the last couple of weeks especially, my pieces of paper have grown with lists of things I needed to pack or things I needed to do before we left. If I remembered something or wasn’t sure about something, I would text my wife to make sure it was bought, brought, or completed by one of us. Nowadays with cell phone technology, it has become so easy for my wife and I to stay in-contact because we can simply text one another! Especially the last few weeks we have been texting more than usual just to check on things for this trip.
So today, when we started packing all of our stuff, it wasn’t so hard to make sure we had everything because we had our lists to work off of in front of us. I would grab an item, put it where it was needed, then check it off of the list. A few days ago, I started a list of things to do today. As I have been completing each item, I just check it off of the list as well.
This day has been busy, but there has been less stress and it is going to be a great trip, all because of a well thought-out plan!
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