Then in 2008, I had a molar pregnancy. It resulted in an emergency D&C. I had to undergo monthly cancer testing for an entire year. We were unable to try for another baby until that year was up. So to be honest, I have become quite phobic of the hospital. It could be post traumatic stress, I don’t know. The thought of going into labor makes me nervous. Not about the labor but about having to go the hospital. I was so nervous at the OBGYN that the last time I was there I forgot to ask some questions and forgot to mention that I have been having contractions already.

My husband had suggested when we first found out that we were expecting that we should “just do it at home”. I kind of laughed at the thought. What if something went wrong? What if the baby was in distress? That was 3 months ago. I have started to think differently.
I had a dream that I had the baby at home, and in the dream I felt very at peace. The dream made me start thinking about our first birth experience. It was very much like being at home. It was calm and peaceful, I wasn’t being forced into anything, no IV, no continuous fetal monitoring keeping me in bed, no beeping monitors, I was able to drink and even eat little bits, no bright blinding lights, I was able to get up and move around as I wished. After she was born she was placed on my chest and she never left my arms reach. We ate, took a short nap and went home within hours of her birth. All of the sudden I found myself longing for that experience again.

So now I am looking for the right midwife. I am not sure what questions I should ask. I am still doing my research.

I would love to hear from any of you who have had home births. What questions did you ask when choosing a midwife? What advice would you give?

Being 14 weeks means I am far enough into my second trimester where theoretically any morning (more like all day) sickness should be subsiding by now. I have to say that while it is getting a little better (not all day anymore , just here and there) I can still barely ride in a car without being very sick. I have not had the kind of crippling fatigue that I seemed to have had with all of my other pregnancies which is a huge blessing! It is very hard to run a household and homeschool 4 kids and chase a toddler when you have toothpicks holding your eyes open. My belly is already huge. I was looking at pictures from my 2nd pregnancy (9 years ago) and I am close to the same size as I was when I was 8 months pregnant with her. ugh.

I have also been noticing that I can already start to feel the beginning of the pelvic separation that I get during pregnancy. I imagine I will start going to see my chiropractor in the next week or so on a weekly basis until that baby arrives. Going to her is the only relief I have been able to get in the past. Weekly adjustments also help keep my sciatic pain in check.

My blood pressure was a little higher at my last appointment than it was the previous time. (Maybe because I had all 5 kids with me? yeah, that could be it..) It is a little concerning to me though because I was on bed rest for the majority of my last pregnancy due to high blood pressure. I am hoping that by eating a strict diet, not salting my food and drinking plenty of water will keep my blood pressure down and help me avoid bed rest. I have already noticed that in the last two weeks that I have made those changes, and I have had absolutely no swelling or heartburn. Yay!

• Acetic acid
• Alcohol
• Alpha tocopherol
• Artificial flavorings
• Artificial sweeteners
• Ascorbates
• Ascorbic acid
• Astaxanthin
• Baking powder
• Barley malt* (generally OK, but can be contaminated)
• Bleached flour*
• Blended sugar (sugaridextrose)
• Brown sugar* (generally OK if no caramel color)
• Calcium citrate
• Calcium fumarate
• Calcium gluconate
• Calcium lactate
• Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA)
• Calcium stearate
• Calcium stearoyl lactylate
• Caramel and caramel color
• Carbonmethylcellulose sodium
• Cellulose microcrystalline
• Cellulose, methyl
• Cellulose, powdered
• Cetearyl glucoside
• Choline chloride
• Citric acid*
• Citrus cloud emulsion (CCS)
• Coco glycerides (cocoglycerides)
• Confectioners sugar
• Corn alcohol, corn gluten
• Corn extract
• Corn flour
• Corn oil, corn oil margarine
• Corn starch
• Corn sweetener, corn sugar
• Corn syrup, corn syrup solids
• Corn, popcorn, cornmeal
• Cornstarch, cornflour
• Crosscarmellose sodium
• Crystalline dextrose
• Crystalline fructose
• Cyclodextrin
• DATUM (a dough conditioner)
• Decyl glucoside
• Decyl polyglucose
• Dextrin
• Dextrose (also found in IV solutions)
• Dextrose anything (such as monohydrate or anhydrous)
• d-Gluconic acid
• Distilled white vinegar
• Drying agent
• Erythorbic acid
• Erythritol
• Ethanol
• Ethocel 20
• Ethylcellulose
• Ethylene
• Ethyl acetate
• Ethyl alcohol
• Ethyl lactate
• Ethyl maltol
• Fibersol-2
• Flavorings*
• Food starch
• Fructose*
• Fruit juice concentrate*
• Fumaric acid
• Germ/germ meal
• Gluconate
• Gluconic acid
• Glucono delta-lactone
• Gluconolactone
• Glucosamine
• Glucose*
• Glucose syrup* (also found in IV solutions)
• Glutamate
• Gluten
• Gluten feed/meal
• Glycerides
• Glycerin*
• Glycerol
• Golden syrup
• Grits
• High fructose corn syrup
• Hominy
• Honey*
• Hydrolyzed corn
• Hydrolyzed corn protein
• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose
• Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose pthalate (HPMCP)
• Inositol
• Invert syrup or sugar
• Iodized salt
• Lactate
• Lactic acid*
• Lauryl glucoside
• Lecithin
• Linoleic acid
• Lysine
• Magnesium fumarate
• Maize
• Malic acid
• Malonic acid
• Malt syrup from corn
• Malt, malt extract
• Maltitol
• Maltodextrin
• Maltol
• Maltose
• Mannitol
• Methyl gluceth
• Methyl glucose
• Methyl glucoside
• Methylcellulose
• Microcrystaline cellulose
• Modified cellulose gum
• Modified corn starch
• Modified food starch
• Molasses* (corn syrup may be present; know your product)
• Mono and di glycerides
• Monosodium glutamate
• MSG
• Natural flavorings*
• Olestra/Olean
• Polenta
• Polydextrose
• Polylactic acid (PLA)
• Polysorbates* (e.g. Polysorbate 80)
• Polyvinyl acetate
• Potassium citrate
• Potassium fumarate
• Potassium gluconate
• Powdered sugar
• Pregelatinized starch
• Propionic acid
• Propylene glycol*
• Propylene glycol monostearate*
• Saccharin
• Salt (iodized salt)
• Semolina (unless from wheat)
• Simethicone
• Sodium carboxymethylcellulose
• Sodium citrate
• Sodium erythorbate
• Sodium fumarate
• Sodium lactate
• Sodium starch glycolate
• Sodium stearoyl fumarate
• Sorbate
• Sorbic acid
• Sorbitan
• Sorbitan monooleate
• Sorbitan tri-oleate
• Sorbitol
• Sorghum* (not all is bad; the syrup and/or grain CAN be mixed with corn)
• Starch (any kind that’s not specified)
• Stearic acid
• Stearoyls
• Sucrose
• Sugar* (not identified as cane or beet)
• Threonine
• Tocopherol (vitamin E)
• Treacle (aka golden syrup)
• Triethyl citrate
• Unmodified starch
• Vanilla, natural flavoring
• Vanilla, pure or extract
• Vanillin
• Vegetable anything that’s not specific*
• Vinegar, distilled white
• Vinyl acetate
• Vitamin C* and Vitamin E*
• Vitamins*
• Xanthan gum
• Xylitol
• Yeast*
• Zea mays
• Zein

Corn is even used in the washing process of pre-washed, bagged salads. Our salad isn’t even safe! While reading about corn allergy, I ran across this article that even suggests that excess corn consumption could cause hormone disruption.  We already know that the pesticides used in corn are  major hormone disruptors.

Eating out will pretty much be out of the question. We eat mostly whole foods anyway but now it looks like some of our favorite snack foods are out. Pirate Booty anyone!? YUM.

I am replacing her beloved peanut butter with a raw homemade almond butter and replacing popcorn (which we also love) with rice cakes.  I also started making my raw almond milk again to replace the little dairy we did use. And I am looking for a non-dairy recipe for homemade yogurt.

Here is a peek at my new improved allergy-free, Vegan Menu.

Now that the new year is beginning I am ready to take over get things back in order. But I needed a new and better way to keep up with things and I have found it! I have found a simple way to keep up with our finances and keep our budget.

I present to you the IPhone/ITouch app called iReconcile.

One problem that I had is that we have multiple bank accounts. Some are even in other states than the one we live in. Some of the deposits are direct while in other accounts they are not. We are self-employed and so that also tends to complicate things. Brian used one account and I preferred the other that I could rack up airline miles on, but for some things I used another. It was a hot mess. I haven’t even mentioned the business accounts that we carry.  iReconcile has a solution for that. It supports multiple accounts and even transfers between accounts. Whew!

I love the features of iReconcile.

• Multiple accounts (banking, credit, etc.)
• Split transactions
• Transfers between accounts
• Budgets
• Reports
• Memorized transactions with scheduling
• Search
• Export (CSV, QIF)
• Pin number security
• Custom currency by account

One other problem that we had is that Brian would always forget to give me his receipts so it made it nearly impossible to keep the checkbook balanced. I can’t tell you how many times this would throw our balances off. With iReconcile, you can share accounts with other users, and manage your records right at iReconcile.com. Any changes to your data are automatically synchronized with all your devices. So my forgetful hubby can just enter his transaction right into his phone and mine will instantly have the same information. Just like that. No more nagging. Well, almost none..

Another other issue was our actual budget. I used to use a method up different envelopes for each category of the budget except for the things that we had set to auto pay like mortgage, insurances, utility bills. Each month I would start with a new set of envelopes and I would keep all of my receipts in them.  On the outside of the envelope have a spending limit set and written down and then keep a tally of what was spent during the month next to that. When the limit was reached spending stopped.  But that made it hard to budget from one month to the next. What if I was trying to save for something special? It was hard to keep up. With iRconcile, you can designate how much you want to spend in certain categories and even rollover unused funds from one month to the next if you wish, but if you overspend one month it will deduct from the next. LOVE IT!

Because the app allows multiple devices to sync with the account our kids that also have IPhones can keep watch over their savings account balances and watch them grow.

At present the cost of the app is only $2.99 .

I know this will help us to keep our finances in order and manage and stick to our budget. We always have our phones handy and the information is at our finger tips. Since both Brian and I can work together on this, it makes it so much easier to manage. We can hold each other accountable. I am really looking forward to getting this New Year’s resolution of “doing a better job of keeping up with our finances” off my list next year.

I hope the coming new year brings you prosperity and success in all you do.

This is a test shot. These are my “littles”. Me: “Oh please oh please don’t smile like that…it looks like you are in pain.., Amelia, look at Mommy”

Scratch that …I will change the camera angle…I bring in the “bigs”. Cute picture but its all blown out..I do some more adjusting..

this one was too dark and I had to do some work to bring it “back” but it still looks terrible but the kids are all looking pretty good.

This is where I started to lose them…

AH!! I can’t take it!

and this is what I was left with… trying to get the “perfect” picture is almost as painful for me as it was for my “littles”.

Go figure..

Off we head to the recital.

Our girls were scheduled in the middle time slots of the recital. We listened to Jingle Bells a few hundred times.  Amelia was chomping at the bit to watch her big sisters play.

“Hey kid, don’t chew on that”

Finally…

Briana played “Joy to the World”. She was very nervous that she would make a mistake, but she didn’t. Maybe next time she will be less nervous and have a little more fun.

Juliana played “Jingle Bells”. She was slightly nervous petrified. But she was determined to get up there and show her stuff.

Adriana played “Go Tell it on a Mountain”. Of all of the girls, I thought she would be the most nervous because she is our introvert, but she wasn’t.

Amelia was so proud of her big sisters.

Here are all the big kids with their lovely music teacher.

We all were very proud. You did a wonderful job girls!

We don’t do the whole Santa thing so we don’t do the cookies and milk or hidden Santa gifts or any of that. People are generally appalled that we deprive our children of that experience but let me assure you that our kids enjoy Christmas as much as the next.  The little kids even love Santa, and want their pictures made with “Santa”. But they all know the big guy really doesn’t bring them presents.

We only had a couple last minute things to assemble and we were busy filling their little stockings. I think this is the first year in years that we have not been up until 2 am assembling things. We purposefully chose things that did not require us to spend countless hours putting them together. We wanted to make Christmas as stress free as possible. (Did you know that Christmas is the #1 day in the US for heart attacks?) We were in bed by 10pm,  making this the longest night of sleep on a Christmas Eve than I have ever had in my life even though the boy was up at 5. We then tortured our kids by making them wait for us to shower and making everyone get dressed before heading down to begin the festivities. Hey- at least we didn’t make them eat breakfast first.

The first picture of the day

This little Waldorf playhouse was one of the things that we assembled the night before. It was intended for our 2 year old Amelia but it seems as if the whole gang loves to hang out and play in there. I was surprised about how big it actually was, there is actually room for all 5 kids to play in it at the same time.

This is the first tree that I let the kids decorate all by themselves. I didn’t even wait for them to go to bed and rearrange the whole thing like I usually do. I resisted temptation and left it exactly as they did it. Or more realistically I am 11 weeks pregnant and was just too sick/tired/lazy to do a bit of it.

Why do kids start fake smiling when a camera is pointed at them? I tried so hard to capture the excitement of the day by taking non-posed, natural pictures. But those kids see a camera point their way and they pose, and they cheese, and they fake smile. The dreaded fake smile..

Look at that kid on the left. Could she smile any harder? Fake. The one on the right, well that’s pretty natural.

And look at this one. It starts so young.. don’t even ask me what is going on with her eyes.

As a side note: does anyone know what is causing that shadow at the bottom of my pictures? It happens often and completely irritates me and I have no idea what causes it.

I love this guy’s smile. I love the way he looks at me with those big wonderful blue eyes….

We take our kids and let them pick out gifts for each of their siblings. They have so much fun going on a special shopping trip all by themselves and getting to spend time alone with their daddy. They put so much thought into what they plan to get for everyone and even make lists before they go. They really love to give as much (or more ) than receiving.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20: 35).

They are always more excited to hand out the presents they picked out than to open their own. These two picked out the same thing for each other. It was funny when the boy opened his from her and he freaked because he thought it got mixed up somehow. There is that smile- again. Boy, could you please stop doing that with your lips?

I love this look. She is trying to figure out what in the world she had just gotten. It was a foam puzzle. The very first we have ever purchased.

We don’t really buy much for the kids the during rest of the year so we don’t really feel bad about going “overboard”, and let’s just face it, we do go overboard. We do buy a lot of things that can be used for homeschooling like Ravensburger puzzles, building toys, art supplies and science kits or things that may go along with what we are studying. We also try to stick to natural toys and toys that encourage them to use their imagination like the Waldorf play stands and the Playmobil collections, baby dolls, dress up clothes, play silks and the kitchen set. Our children love Playmobil and it is one of the only plastic toys that I will buy. Playmobil is one of those toys where my kids can get lost in their imagination together for hours. We have very few of those colorful, plastic, battery operated toys but instead opt for more natural and environmentally friendly toys. At one time we had quite a few but I slowly removed them from our home.

This is the gift that my little Juliana picked out for me. I love making homemade popsicles. She loves to eat them.

Our littlest princess giving her new dress up dress a whirl.

Here Juli is trying out her big sister’s new stilts. I tried them out on Christmas Eve while the kids were sleeping and boy are they are so much fun. I had a pair of red wooden ones as a child and they were always one of my favorite toys. I would have loved to have found a wooden set.

Briana just started taking violin lessons recently and has been borrowing one to practice on. We decided on waiting for Christmas to buy one her size instead of just renting one. She had no idea we were planning on getting one any time soon. She was very surprised and couldn’t wait to pick it up and start playing.

Talk about thrilled. Take a look at that mouth face.

The gifts are fun. They are fun to pick out, fun to give, fun to open. There is no doubt though, the most wonderful gift in this world is this precious family that we are blessed with.  We are so thankful for all that we have. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful life, we have beautiful,smart, creative, thoughtful, happy, healthy children, a warm home and some really great friends to share it all with.

The most wonderful gift we could ever receive is from our father above. Have you heard?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16 NIV)

And listen to this!

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

Wow. A gift. Just like those material gifts that we just exchanged freely. But much, much better. Just like that. A gift. Amazing.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above  (Jas. 1: 17, ASV)

Merry Christmas from the Baker Family.

CHEESE…

Chances are that if you are raising a large family you might be feeling like there is no way you can “get it all done”, especially if your children are still very young. In the days when we had four kids five and under the age of five we had not yet learned the importance of time management. Life was somewhat chaotic and felt very hectic and rushed. I somehow managed to keep my home somewhat in order, thanks mostly to my need for some kind of control. I didn’t feel like I had much control over many things in my life, but I could have control over how clean and tidy my home was. But I was always causing us to be late, for doctors and dentist appointments that I would later have to pay a fee for missing, parties that if we actually made it on time for that we would be without a gift, and thanks to my poor organization we were always late for church, missing homeschool field trips and activities, sports and music lessons….its exhausting just to think about.  There were so many times that I would accept invitations to events that I would later forget about and miss entirely or just be too worn out to attend because I was so tired and frustrated from trying to keep it all together. I realized that I was just chronically disorganized. I finally decided that I was going to have to pull myself together or I was going to lose my sanity. I was tired of losing money for missing appointments and having to apologize for being late or without a gift, or worst of all disappointing my kids and my husband and making excuses for myself. I was tired of being that mom. It was time to sink or swim.

I tried a lot of different organizational tools for trying to keep my family in smooth running order. Some of them worked and some of them didn’t. Here are a few of the things that help me to keep our family on track. Hang on to your seats, this just may change your life.

Tip # 1.  Use the calendar program on your phone to set appointments. Set it for weekly events like sports practices and music lessons. Set alarms to remind yourself about the event. I usually set two or three of them, actually. The first alarm is set if there is something that needs to be done to prepare in advance like getting a gift or wrapping or preparing a dish to take. I usually try to get that done at least one day in advance. I set a second alarm that will give me enough advance warning time before the event to get the entire family ready to get out the door. The third alarm tells me that we need to be heading out of the door. It is always a good idea to use a mapping program ahead of time if you are not sure of where or how long it will take to get to your destination.  The program I use also has a section for notes where I put an address of the destination and a phone number, that way I can program my car’s GPS without having to search for the address and have a number to call if I get lost.  *Just a note- I am a Mac user and use the ICal program that syncs perfectly with my IPhone. Apple even has this thing called mobile me. I can make changes to my calendar on my phone or my computer and they update each other instantly and automatically without having to hook up any cables to sync or anything. Its like magic. It IS magic.

Also, always refer to your calendar before you make any commitments, even if you don’t think you have anything going on that day. You may find you have forgotten something or just see that you have a lot of things on the schedule that week and need to have family time.

Tip # 2. It is a good idea to choose the times of day you will homeschool that works for your family. Some families work better in the morning and some like to have their days free and to work in the evening. We work better and tend to stay on track when we start in the mornings. I got to a point to where even though we were getting all of our school work done, I felt like we weren’t getting all the other things we needed to get done around the house. We needed to create a more detailed schedule but I didn’t really know where to start. The one tool that has helped me to create a realistic schedule is a book called Managers of their homes: A practical guide to daily scheduling for Christian home-school families. Right away after implementing my new MOTH schedule we felt like we were getting more done. We each have goals for the day. The kids love that they can look and see what they should be doing and what time they can expect to not have something expected of them. Even if we don’t stay perfectly on time with our schedule, we still follow the schedule.

Time management is such an important lesson for us as parents to learn and for us to teach our children. Managing our time wisely makes it easy to set and reach goals giving us a sense of accomplishment and pride in our ability to keep our word. We are able to make it on time to where we need to be when we need to be there with what we need to be prepared. And we have more time to play and relax.

I was a little nervous about actually posting it on my blog because I was a little worried about the chance that I would have to come back and say, oh wait..no…. I am sure that those of you who have also experienced loss understand.

I am now 10 weeks and 5 days and everything is looking great. I have had the worst case of morning sickness of any pregnancy so far and unfortunately none of the remedies I have tried to far have been successful in helping. I am feeling less tired than I have with my other pregnancies so I am thankful for that. It’s a real blessing being able to keep up with my other children, for the most part anyway. I was even able to get back into the gym this week. Brian was hoping I would wait until we made it to the 12 week mark just to be safe but I just couldn’t wait. I just feel so much more positive about everything after a workout, it is amazing how much it helps my mood. I was starting to feel a little down and I knew I just needed to get back into the gym. I am taking it easy though and thinking about seeking out a personal trainer who can help me to find safe exercises to do while I am pregnant.

Here is a peek at our new little bun in the oven. (we are Bakers’ after all…)

This ultrasound was at 8 weeks. He or she already has Daddy’s head!

Thank you for sharing in this journey with us. Thank you for your praying for us.

Amelia really, really wants to learn to play the “biolin”.

This is Briana, she is the biggest of the sisters. It’s a really, really good time to have a big sister. A big sister who just happens to know how to play the “biolin”.

A big sister that loves being a big sister. This sweet big sister shows her just how to place her hands.

Briana can show her just how to hold the bow.

It’s really handy to have a big sister that is willing to teach her how to read music.

I love to see big sisters encouraging their little sisters. Imagine having this kind of encouragement with the simple things in life….

The best part of all though, is having someone to play with!

Don’t you think?

The first step is to set a budget. Plan ahead at least a few months ahead and estimate how much money you will be able to save for the trip.

Tip # 1: Finding a place to stay.

There are great deals to be found on lodging. But if you are super picky like we are, this will be your largest cost and will eat up a large portion of your budget. Because of the size of our family we often have to rent more than one hotel room or rent a more expensive suite. We also spend quite a bit of time in our lodging because we have younger children that require naps, but if we  would be spending relatively little time there I would settle with clean.

Word of mouth is a great wind to find good affordable lodging. Lots of people own timeshares, condos, lake homes that are willing to rent them to friends for a discounted rate. You just need to ask around. We even have a friend who offers up his fabulous lake home to us every summer free of charge. It is a huge blessing to our family.

We have been visiting Gatlinburg every Christmas season for years now and have stayed in some really great chalets but we have found that it cost us less money to rent a condo that is close to the main strip. The one we stay at is plenty big enough for our family and it is in walking distance to the places we like to visit so save a little on gas and we also save on parking. It costs about $4. each time we need to park the car and being in walking distance eliminates this. Renting a condo also helps to save money on our next topic.

Tip# 2: Eating on a budget.

With a family of 7 even eating fast food can cost upward of $35 a meal. By renting a condo, we are able to save money by preparing our own food. Of course, it also has the added benefit of being healthier. We do eat out some, but we plan it around our activities and actual travel time. I like to take along my slow cooker and use it. I can start a meal in it right after breakfast, we can leave for the day and not worry about trying to find something to eat or spending all my vacation time in the kitchen. You can do simple breakfasts of cereal and fruit, and simple lunches of sandwiches and soup. I usually pack a few snacks of homemade fruit rolls ups, nuts or whatever is in the pantry and even make a couple of loaves of bread. I make a grocery list and shop when we reach our destination. If you had the food on hand and the room for a cooler you could go that route but we are 7 in a minivan and normally do not have the room. Also packing lighter makes it much more enjoyable for the person who does most of the loading/unloading of the car, my husband.

Tip#3:

Be very careful protective with the money you have budgeted for discretionary use. If you are in a area with lots of tourism, there will be tons of souvenir shops around waiting for you to part with that hard earned cash. We usually set a per person souvenir amount, say $20 max per person. Most of the money is used for fun activities. We often have to remind the kids “we can either buy a bunch of junk and spend all our money or use the money for something better. They always choose the something better.  This year my husbands parents bought us season passes to Dollywood as our Christmas present. In years past we would have bought them ourselves and that would be our fun money spent. This year we are able to use that money to do other things like go to the Dixie Stampede and some other places we haven’t been able to see. Oh, another tip- research some of the things you would like to do on the internet, often you can find discounts on the web by purchasing them in advance or by using coupon codes. You can also just give them a call and ask for a discount. It never hurts to ask!

Tip #4: HAVE FUN!!

As homeschoolers we are tempted to make even family vacation an opportunity for teaching. Of course it is always a great idea to visit historical sites and points of interest around where you are staying. Often they are fun and even free. You can almost never go wrong with a state park. Most of them have some great activities for families planned. Your children will learn from it guaranteed. But try to keep it fun. Don’t turn it into a lesson. (Wait until you get home to do that! …Remember when we went to ____?, let’s talk a little about that…)

I hope this gives you some ideas for a great family trip that doesn’t break the bank.

Here are a few more:

Try finding somewhere within 4 hours drive. Cuts the cost of airline travel, fuel cost is minimal and you don’t have to worry about along the way lodging.

Go in the off-season. You can always get great deals on the off-season.

Pack snacks for the car trip instead of stopping at the gas station for expensive and unhealthy snacks and drinks.

Make use of rest areas. Pack brown bag lunches before you leave home. Most rest areas are very nice with clean rest rooms, have 24 hour security, great picnic areas and even play areas for kids.

Happy Travels!