1 Mother 2 Another

I’m in the midst of preparing for
our trip next week and the house is starting to look a bit like the
Container Store ran into a Children’s Place and exploded. The
dining room is turning into Central Control, and I’ve got
stacks and stacks of projects started. I’ve found the plastic
tub that fits EXACTLY between the girls’ seats and the seat
in front of them, and have begun filling these tubs with snack
food, first aid kits, and more. I have zip-loc bags labeled
“Chargers” to collect our large handful of cell phone,
iPod, and camera chargers; zip-loc bags labeled “car
chargers” for almost the same thing; and notebooks with my
master plan written out in twelve easy-to-read pages.


And then there’s my laminator.

I hit Mom’s Minivan and printed off
the road-trip bingo cards there. Not content with paper cards,
I’ve laminated each one, and cut it into a perfect little
square with my large paper-cutter. I’m currently trying to
solve the how-to-mark-them dilemma; I’m afraid a dry-erase
marker in Cora’s hand is simply begging to get indelible
marker all over the car seat, and I don’t think pennies will
stay put on her sliding card. Right now, I’m experimenting
with Container Store’s Post-It tape – rip off a piece
of colored tape, and it acts like a post-it note, usable over and
over.


I’ll let you know how it goes.


But my piece-de-resistance with the laminating machine is the map.
I’ve printed (and when I say “I” I mean I begged
my husband to do this in nifty graphics with color) a map of our
route, perfectly fitting from the bottom right corner of the paper
and stretching to the top left corner of the paper. And I have
several sheets of star stickers, so every time we stop the girls
can fill in along the route the road we’ve traveled so far,
and see how far we have yet to go. Then I’ll simply scrape
them off and let them do the same thing (with already-purchased
refill stickers) in reverse as we drive home.


Am I going too far?