Gearing Up....Ready to Go!

We leave this week for Washington! We plan to get in the car in the wee hours of the morning and "set sail". I started to have some panic attacks a few days ago about the trip. Mostly just because of the dependability of the car and the drive of 16 hours with three kids in the back seat of a Jetta. It will be good for them, but can we survive? I certainly hope so. We are taking snacks and movies mostly. We girls all get too car sick for much more. I started to feel better when I just put my adventure hat on so to speak and realized something that I've been telling myself ever since having kids started to fee heavy... there is no mess too big it cannot be cleaned up. What ever happens, we will work through it and we will come out the other side of it. All the good planning can flip on you at any moment anyway, so why try to plan it all perfect.
I'm not good at the planning thing. I'm not the mom who stays up late thinking of the creative things my kids can do or take or play on an outing. If it hits me, I do it, take it, prepare it. If not, the chips will fall where they may. I just get too overwhelmed planning it all out (that random brain thing) and too cranky if what I've planned out does not happen. See why I need that adventure hat on!?
I'm letting my house get real dirty on purpose (ever do that, it's kinda fun). This helped ease my stress too. Instead of cleaning it a week before and fussing for every little thing that messed it up again, I wait and clean it the day before we leave. Then leave, quick! There is no sense in doing it thoroughly twice. You should see my kitchen floor!!! Eeeeek!
I am however a little picky about coming home to a clean house and clean bedding. There is no greater feeling than a clean home and fresh sheets welcoming you back.
We took Ebony over to Tricia's to meet their dog Lucy yesterday. It went really well. I was impressed. They seem to like each other. I'm actually looking forward to a break from the pets for a few weeks. The kittens will be looked in on by our neighbor but cats are so much easier! I'm glad they have each other to romp around with and keep entertained.
I'm delving into the whole mystery of "Lost" while on vacation. I'm starting some of the books from the "Lost" book club. These are books that are mentioned in the show somewhere. The producers say that reading some of these may help you develop more of the mystery of the story, and I thought what they hey? I'll have some down time which does not happen around here, so I've sent off for them through the library. The five I chose are:

"Island" by Aldous Huxley (this should be interesting after having had to read "Brave New World" in a world view class in college)
"Bad Twin" by Gary Troup (no idea what I'm getting into on this one, but Sawyer was reading it as a script which intrigued me, why not a book? Is that a clue that it had a lot to do with the writing of the script of the show? hmmmmm)
"Turn of the Screw" by Henry James (use to have it in my literary days, always wanted to read it anyway, but this one must be significant to the whole "Lost" mystery because it is said many times to be where the Dharma orientation video is kept behind on the book shelf...interesting)
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams (always wanted to read this one too)
"Evil Under the Sun" by Agatha Christy (on the list, and hey, who can go wrong with an Agatha Christy novel?)

So, though highly nonspiritual, there is my reading list for the next few weeks. This whole rewatching of Lost has been intriguing to me. I've noticed things I've never seen before....those numbers are everywhere! We were watching an episode where Anna Lucia pulls her cop car into the police department and low and behold, the aerial shot showed all the cars around her had the numbers 04, 08, 15, 16, 23, 42.....I never saw that before. Thought I was real clever for noticing it and then plugged it into the search bar of this lost theories site and found it was old news. If you are a big fan of the show, the site has some fun theories!