🎓Surviving Graduation...All of them 🎓

You know the saying about things coming in waves? That would be graduations this year for us!! 😜Now, when it comes down to it… we don’t have a LOT, but they are all FAMILY, and they are all mostly on different weekends (thankfully!), and all involve travel of some kind. So… how will we be surviving the graduations this month? Simple. With a plan 😜🤣

I know that sounds easy, but that’s really the key. Since most of them will be a travel for family we are able to stay with them - but at the same time, it’s a lot to stay with family all the time, and can still get expensive (travel snacks anyone?!?!), and with our family sensitivities we tend to travel with a LOT of stuff…

We’ve almost perfected our travel packing and routine - not because we pack and travel a lot but because I’ve worked overtime to make sure we have all the things gathered as duplicates so we aren’t having to scramble and pack / unpack. I know this isn’t for everyone but it’s what works best for my brain and all the things I need to make sure we are okay with everything. This means we have a travel oil set (by the way - did you know that we have a customer page with all sorts of Diving Deeper articles and things??), as well as a travel, well, everything. I refuse to be miserable for multiple days in a row… especially when there are things we need to do, so we pack things that help us all function to the hightest ability (and yes - sometimes that includes our cloth toilet paper). We have another post planned to go into greater detail about my packing and things 😜but for now, know that sometimes you need a duplicate of something to make your travel easier.

Another part is - we always have a plan for clean water. Bottled water is SO expensive so we make sure that we are prepared and instead of getting individual bottles we get large gallon jugs of water, and while I don’t love the impact that has on cutting back on trash - you find a balance. We also all have XL water bottles (Ben and I have gallon jugs and Soph has a ½ gallon), that ALWAYS go with us. This prevents “emergency” water stops. I searched all over facebook market and found a gal with gallon glass jugs that might end up in the packing process but I haven’t figured out exactly HOW yet. I’ve also been doing research for different water filtration systems that we can travel with and use in hotel rooms (or rooms at families houses) without taking up too much room in our kitchen / cleaning travel bag (Oh yeah - I have a kitchen/ cleaning travel bag!).

Food and snacks are also really important - and while traveling and eating in new places is kind of part of the adventure - there are times that you need to cut back as well. The rule that has worked best for us is… staying someplace with complimentary breakfast (this is our “splurge” off our regular diet), we do a cold - packed lunch with “snacks”, and then we find someplace NOT available at home to eat dinner. Now when you stay with family this can be a little more difficult - because everyone has different go-to meals they serve when people come, so we make sure that we have our vitamins all ready to go AND that we don’t over indulge. This can look like - taking the white bread off the sandwich, not eating the Oreo cookies and going for the homemade chocolate chip, but really making sure that you know your body’s reaction to things that you don’t normally eat (who wants to be in the bathroom the whole trip??), or you have a plan to help it.

Last and certainly not least - the best sort of plan to have for lots of travel and time with family? The plan to take care of you. Does extra laundry stress you out - maybe pick out a couple of outfits that can be your “go-to” so you know what to pack and don’t stress. Know that if you have family that uses laundry soap that gives you hives- Maybe plan to take your own set of sheets. Know that you have family that eats like a kid that went to the gas station in the 80’s? Maybe plan your own snacks and up your gut health vitamins. Being around people stresses you out? Develop your own “Red Light - Yellow Light - Green Light” system for your family so you can check in without being overbearing or hurting anyone’s feelings (do you guys want to know more about how we do this?). Know that some people tend to go overboard with presents? Decide ahead of time not to engage with that contest (for real - no one wins….), you have your gift (and you showing up is also a gift!!!), be proud and stand behind it.

So as we go barreling into the month of graduations, try not to get so caught up in the busy that you miss out on the amazing opportunities to celebrate the accomplishments. 🎓