Even with vacation, it's the small things we do that make our life and routine simple and calming. My husband took me with him on an international trip this month to a business conference he attended. Some steps I took to reduce stress preparing for the trip and upon our return might be helpful to you too:
1. Establish a trip folder early on in the planning stages. From the get go I got a manila envelope and wrote with a marker in big letters "SPAIN" on the outside. Into it went our travel itinerary, tourist info, hotel reservations, trip insurance documents, etc. This envelope went into my carry-on bag when we left in order to have it at my fingertips.
2. Establish document templates and save to reuse. Because we often rely on relatives to keep our children, I have an information sheet that I can update with each trip and easily print out for their use. It includes children's routines, emergency phone numbers, copies of insurance cards, permission to medically treat in our absence, etc. Though we usually use the same caretakers and they might already have some of this information, I think it is appreciated that it is all in one place and again, at their fingertips. I also have an information sheet for the neighbor kid that comes to care for the animals and garden.
3. Clean the house! My kids always ask why I need to clean the house thoroughly before we leave because, in their logic, no one will be here to see it anyway. I am kind of a stress case when it comes to the order of the house before we leave. All trash must be emptied, dishes clean, nothing on the floor or counters. I even wash my bed sheets and make my bed up. When I dragged my jet-lagged body into the house along with 8 people's worth of luggage and dirty laundry, the sight of a tidy house was a soothing sight. One less thing to worry about. And I won't even try to describe how those clean sheets felt on my newly-bathed and tired body that night.
4. Simple dinner, on time to bed. On our drive home I was figuring out in my head what we were going to eat for dinner so I wouldn't react with take-out or junk. My kids were asking for a drive-through meal on the way home, but I reminded them that we had all been eating more than our share of junk while on vacation. My husband and I eating out, and the kids being spoiled by grandparents and uncles/aunts with pizza, ice cream, kids' meals, etc. So I heated up some home-canned soup, made some biscuits, and sliced up some fresh tomatoes and fruit which we picked up at the fruit stand on our way home. Then, we all went to bed on time even though it was Saturday night and our usual routine includes movies, late nights out with friends, or backyard campfires and s'mores after dark. I knew we all needed to catch up and we had a much more peaceful morning after.
Little things make these huge undertakings that much easier, and enjoyable. What steps do you take before and after you go on vacation?
