Boundary Waters Preparation

Tom took his "day at home" on Friday rather than Thursday because of the go-carting adventure. So Tom spent Friday mowing the lawn and getting things ready for his trip next week to the Boundary Waters (BW) with his discipleship group. In the morning I went to Walmart in Hutch to pick up the food for the BW trip and took Elise & Ezra with me. Ella & Emmeline stayed home with Tom and had fun with playdough while Tom mowed the lawn. Then when he was working on the trailer or other things outside, they got to ride bike and do other outside activities.

My time in Walmart was not short, at least 2 hours! Well, I got a fishing license for our family and picked up food items that we usually don't get and so it took me awhile to find them, plus I figure 30 minutes of my time was simply from having the younger two along for the shopping trip. Food they typically eat up in the BW is Breakfast: oatmeal packets, precooked bacon; lunch: tortilla & PB/Jelly, cheese & summer sausage/pepperoni, Hudson Bay Bread (the link gives you and idea as to what's in it - my version is a little different); Supper: Lipton Pasta Sides, Tuna Helper, No-Bake Cheesecake, Mac n Cheese, Pudding, and of course any fish that are caught.

Then after I was home and after quiet-time, Tom was still getting things ready for the trip and so I re-packaged all the food for the trip. We repackage stuff in order to cut down on the amount of trash/weight that needs to be carried. Nothing is left in it's cardboard box. It's taken out & dumped into ziplock bags & labeled for contents. We do include a little cut-out of the directions for meal prep. For anything calling for milk to be added, we use powdered milk since it doesn't spoil. Emmeline had fun helping me. She packed the instant little coffee bags & the Gatorade powder packets (which are added to the filtered water for a tastier stuff to drink). She also packed up the Nutty Bars in a Tupperware - to keep them from getting crushed.

On a completely different note, Ezra has some interesting names for his siblings. He can't pronounce most of their names accept Ella's. For Elise he says "Li Li" and for Emmeline he says "Lime" and for himself he says "Eh-wha".