And So It Begins...

We’re trying something new with this adventure.

We pack light. We’ve always packed light. Buds is often the one who thinks of “just one more thing,” but the children and I are pretty good at keeping it to a minimum. The kids (except for Yessa) and I don’t care much about clothes, so that helps.

This trip, we’re taking it even lighter. Each person is packing three outfits, plus pj’s if you like. The children are wearing one pair of shoes. Buds and I will have two pair (this counts the shoes we will wear.) We’ll each have a jacket. Outfits and jackets are packed into zip lock baggies with the air squeezed out. This means when you want to get something out on the plane, you don’t have to pull out everything else to find what you need.

Here are the children’s piles of clothes, ready to be zip locked.

Here are the backpacks they will each carry:

Each of us will have a water bottle, the toiletries for the whole family will be spread around, as well as snacks we’ll all share during travel.

I’m feeling good about this.

Then, it got even better.

Buds has been organizing, backing up, and encrypting all devices that are going with us. He has a plan for stolen laptops, stolen wallets…he’s thought it through. He cleaned out the storage on my phone so I had lots of space then said, “Load up the books you want for reading on the trip.”

Load up the books you want for reading on the trip.

Our children are at an age where they won’t need constant attention on the flights. We have four flights of various durations winging toward us.

I just went through our kindle bookshelves and put 20 books on my phone that I would like to read. I’m as giddy about that as I am about being in Italy right now.

Time to read, time with the people I enjoy most in the world, only having three pair of underwear to worry about keeping clean…I am so incredibly blessed.