Queen of the Castle: Week 27

For those of you playing along...(if you've just joined us you can get caught up a bit here) we are on week 27 of the book Queen of the Castle: 52 weeks of encouragement for the uninspired, domestically challenged or just plain tired homemaker.


This week's chapter is titled "Trippety Doo Dah:  The Family Vacation".  Author Lynne Walker laments the fact that family vacations are a lot of work.  But I agree with her that they are well worth it.  Besides the memories and bonds that are created we all need a break!  Our family has a few more small camping trips planned before my husband goes back to teaching in the fall (which is not too far away, sadly...I enjoy having him home more in the summer).  I am the list maker, the bag packer, the grocery getter, and the final list checker. (My husband does plenty of his share of work during these camping adventures...think driver, tour guide, hiking guide, fishing guide, life guard, and all around Mr. Fix-it.  Remind me to tell you the story some time about when our propane tanks fell of the camper on the way home one time!)  It's a pretty tiring job but it's worth every bit of it!  


I'll share with you some prevacation suggestions that Lynne suggests that also work for us:

* If you don't want to come home to bags of  cucumber juice in your crisper, make sure you clean out your refrigerator -- at least the fruit and vegetable compartments -- before you leave.  And might I also suggest checking the dates on raw meat you think you'll fix when you get back.  Those dates are there for a reason.  But, I um...wouldn't have any experience in that.  ...  Moving right along...


*If you've bought itty-bitty hairspray, test it out before leaving to make sure the spray lands on your actual hair and not in your eye, like a lemon with a perverse sense of humor.  Again...I wouldn't have any experience here at all...a-hem.

*Stick two large plastic garbage bags in your suitcase, one for dirty clothes (makes doing laundry when you get home a cinch -- no sniffing for what's clean and what isn't) and one for bathing suits or other still-damp clothes.  You're laughing with me, right?


*If you have time change the sheets on the beds and give the house a good once-over.  There is nothing like coming home to a clean house and a clean bed to nuzzle into that night.  


*Make it a point a day or two after vacation to still be officially on vacation.  Our schedule doesn't allow for a whole day after to rest since we have several 3 day or so camping trips sprinkled about the summer but we still enjoy some down time.  When we get home we empty out the camper and van (we clean the camper the next day), sort laundry and decide what absolutely needs washed that evening, put away the rest, order a pizza and watch a movie or episode of Little House on the Prairie!  We do manage to sneak to our e-mails, Facebook, and blogs after the kiddos are in bed to see if anything is urgent then we turn in for the night.  I highly recommend a mini vacation after the vacation!  


*Most importantly, remember that God is with you on your trip.  He doesn't live only in your house or your state.  He is everywhere.  You may feel lost or disoriented when you're in unfamiliar surroundings.  But He will never leave you.  With that I add the reminder to pray;  thank Him for the ability to go on a vacation, thank Him at meals, read the Word with the family, sing praises to Him.  What a better way to rest than in Him.

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"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"  Romans 8:35 NKJV