Whistling in the Dark

Or perhaps more appropriately "listing in the chaos."

I am not a list maker. Maybe I fear the failure of not checking everything off of a list. Maybe I feel making a list is more work on top of the work listed. Maybe I just never got into the habit. Whatever the reason, I do not make lists.

Except for now.

I am currently facing down the second portion of our move. We will be loading a U-Haul trailer with our remaining worldly goods on Saturday and starting our drive to New Mexico early Sunday morning. There are many, many things that need to be done between now and then.

And so, of course, I'm focusing on food. You expect anything else from me?

With six people--four of them small children--on a multi-day car trip, there are not going to be many restaurant stops. It would be too expensive, too stressful with all the children, and would delay us too much. Thus, I'm planning on pretty much feeding us all breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks out of coolers and microwaves at motels.

So I've made lists.

A list of meals and snacks for each of the five days we think it will take us to get there.

A list of the foods needed for those meals and snacks.

A list of the foods I still need to buy.

A list of the foods I can prepare and freeze ahead of time.

A list of foods to be prepared and put in the coolers.

A list of the non-food items needed for feeding everyone.

That's a lot of lists.

But if all goes as planned, we'll make it from New York to New Mexico without having to get in and out of a restaurant, unless we really want to.

And if all doesn't go as planned? Well, it can't be my fault, can it? I mean, I made lists.