I’m researching what Slow Travel families believe to be essential travel stuff. So far no one really  packs a kitchen kit. Uhhhh I think we will. We cook a lot and the shoddy cookware we had in KL really cramped our style and made meal preparation unpleasant. I think this means that for our family…. some combination of pans and pots will be essential. I’m looking around at options that are both lightweight and not too bulky in size. This is not as simple as it seems. Backpacking stuff isn’t big enough–we don’t want to have to cook 4 volleys of each meal.

So far stuff in this collection is looking the most interesting to me. I don’t know that we need the whole set. I may try to get a couple of individual pieces.

We will need at least one sizeable frying pan. At least one stock pot because we make a lot of soup. Do we need another pot or pan? We probably should bring a modest cookie sheet? A knife? The squashy silicone food storage packs that I use for forking everything? One or two wooden spoons?

The full set of those pots and pans are about 7.5 lbs. We get 50 lbs in a checked bag. Maybe cookware needs to be under 10 lbs total?

Our bathroom supplies are currently pretty heavy. That’s a lot of weight.

The physical therapist I’ve seen has indicated that a TRX unit will be a really strong component of what she recommends going forward so it will stay in the bag. (It’s a strappy exercise thingamabob.)

We are hoping to go to the park today but air quality is bad. I will feel guilty if we don’t go because the kids busted their asses to get caught up on academics. They are both less than a day behind at this point.

That’s awesome. They are less than a day behind on math (after months of fussing that’s AMAZING) and they are back on track doing religion writing, fan fic writing (it counts!), and they are each working on a report about Malaysia. We restart yard work and all the botany/biology that goes along with it on Monday.

We’ve been doing pretty dang well at maintaining walking distance. We won’t be fussed about 7 mile days next time we head out. We are training to 6-7 miles/day at this point. I made the kids walk to Tae Kwon Do last night. That went pretty well all things considering. The kids really blossomed with having a pit stop at the local coffee shop for a cup of (non-sugared) tea. They felt energized and ready to come back and do a ton of homework.

Mood wise I feel like things are settling down a lot. A lot less fussing and fighting and bickering. Not nothing…. but not a lot.

We all miss Noah. It’s hard that he has to be so far away right when he was hit with a massive load of grief and he could use extra comforting.

We are doing ok and that feels good. I have spent a lot of the past few months feeling worthless and wracked with doubt. When I constantly set aside a big chunk of my spoons for someone who then disregards my effort, time, and energy… that hurts me.

Maybe it is time for me to consistently make choices around not hurting myself anymore. Maybe 37 is old enough.

I have hurt myself to cope with how I am treated in the past year. That’s maybe a sign I need to change what I tolerate.

Which isn’t to say that anyone is terrible or bad or wrong. I just… I need to deal with my shit.