This is one of my favorite books right now to read before bedtime. I admit that its because it makes me tear up a bit every time I read it to my kids, but it also has a nice, calming rhyme, cute pictures and the sentiment is sweet. It also has the advantage of not being too long - so perfect for right before bed.
Like many of you, this Easter weekend finds us on the road. We’re loading up two kids, one grandparent, one aunt, and the two of us into a crowded Honda Pilot and making the trip to North Carolina. We expect to be on the road for the better part of a day, and experience tells us that one of our biggest challenges is going to be food.
We’re not interested in eating junk food for the day. Ten years ago, if I were making this trip alone, I would have eaten the factory beef on a stale bun, slathered in processed-cheese-food and high-fructose corn syrup and even thought of it as a “treat” (how that idea entered my mind is beyond me). These days, there are a whole set of problems with it, not least of which is the so-called “food.”
What’s a crunchy parent to do?
So far, we haven’t found any single solution to the problem. But there are a few things that seem to help. It starts with a little bit of planning. We buy those single-serving Horizon Organic milks that don’t need to be refrigerated. Yes! Organic market in our neighborhood carries them. While we’re there, we get some dried fruit in case of blood sugar emergencies, and some fresh fruit if it’s in season. We take along some form of cheese for early in the trip, understanding it can’t sit out for long. We bring crackers and some (homemade-if-we-can) cookies.
We make lattes the night before and put it in our travel mugs in the fridge. We supplement this with a piece of fruit, and maybe a pastry if we’ve thought far enough ahead. We leave early (4AM), so the kids can spend some time sleeping, and we try hard not to stop until someone wakes up. Psychologically, it’s easiest for everyone if we don’t need to stop half an hour out of town.
And then, back to the planning… we plan some stops.
We try hard to be reasonable about the fact that we can’t drive much longer than an hour without stopping. It’s a different pace, and we try to luxuriate in it instead of getting frustrated. That part is actually kind of hard. But we try to plan a stop at some sit-down restaurant for lunch. If we need something fast, we try to stop at a Whole Foods or Trader Joes to get some yogurt and applesauce, or one of the many yummy options afforded by that kind of a stop.
We take Sigg bottles full of water, and we try not to buy disposable bottles along the way. Most of all, we try to remember that eating good food and drinking plenty of water, all on our normal schedule, helps everyone get along better and have a nicer trip.
Last, but not least, if we need a stop for entertainment purposes, we try to find something genuinely entertaining. A museum, or a park. Not a cheap plastic toy and factory food. That’s what we try to do. Anyone else have useful tidbits for us?
Editors Note: We’re back from our trip and had one more tip - Panera Bread Company is a pretty good ‘fast’ food place to stop on a trip. They have a lot of organic and vegetarian options, kid friendly place to stretch our legs and it looks like they bake most of the stuff there. Its still fast food, but its on the top of our list now.
Yesterday, I made play dough for my kids using the recipe that my mom used to make for us. Its so easy and they had a great time playing and squishing it. It doesn’t stick to furniture, doesn’t stain their hands and I know exactly what it is made of because I made it. Even more to the point, its made from food ingredients so when my son put it in his mouth, I could just laugh at his funny face instead of worrying.
Here’s what I did, but there are a lot of recipes out there and so if you have some ingredients but not others, just Google until you find one that works with what you have.
Salt Dough
Heat everything up but the flour until its warm then remove from heat and stir in the flour. Start with 1/2 a cup and keep adding until the dough is no longer sticky. I stirred it with a spoon for awhile, then just with my hands at the end. I ended up using a little less than 1 cup of flour and its definitely ’sticky’ until you get the right amount of flour, so you’ll know when its right. You get about two softballs worth of dough out of this.
My kids sat at the table for a good hour with forks, cookie cutters and chopsticks playing with the dough. My one year old wasn’t as interested as my two and half year old, but fun was had by all. We kept the dough in the refrigerator in a plastic bag and used it again that afternoon. It should last for awhile -that is, my kids will get it dirty and gross long before it will actually go bad. Then we’ll just make more!
