Let’s be real here: traveling with young kids is no picnic.

Sure, there was a time in my life when I looked forward to long car and plane rides with my kiddos. In the car we’d play games and listen to all our favorite tunes while counting license plates along the way. And on cross-country flights I’d have a sweet child nestled sleepily in my lap as the flight attendant came by offering more drinks.

And then I actually had children. And I realized the error of my ways.

These little people don’t always fit into the peaceful vision of parenting and travel that I’ve kept tucked away in my mind. In fact, fairly quickly after I gave birth to our first child I realized there truly was no such thing as vacation with a young child. There was just the act of going some place different.

Armed with that daunting little piece of knowledge our family has continued to travel the country multiple times a year. As a former military family, our friends and family are scattered across the continental United States; and as a photographer who takes travel commissions, so are my clients. Traveling with small kids comes with that territory.

On our most recent day of flights back to Alabama from California, we stumbled upon something marvelous – something that truly made at least part of our travel day enjoyable. We were faced with a three hour layover in Dallas after a three hour flight from California, and before a two hour flight home. We were in for a long day. About half an hour before we boarded our first flight I was struck with an idea.

What if we turned our three hour layover in Dallas into an epic airport scavenger hunt? Our oldest child can now read and write (thank you kindergarten!) so she was up to the task of creating a list of items to find. And since there are two children in our family, she would need to copy it again so they would each have one. So guess what she did for the entire first leg of our journey???

Once we landed the kids scrambled off the plane, excited for the adventure ahead. We stopped for lunch before the official start of the game, but the kids couldn’t resist. They started checking off items immediately while still in the restaurant.

For the next hour we crisscrossed the Dallas airport looking for everything from a wheelchair to a lady in a green dress (and when we found her, my was she confused about all the pointing and hollering!) to a real bird.

It ended up being an absolutely lovely day of travel for our family. One I won’t soon forget.

In fact, they were so tuckered out by the game that when we finally boarded our last flight they each swiftly fell asleep in our laps.

So my husband and I asked for another drink.

What are your best traveling-with-kiddos ideas? Summer vacation is fast approaching so let me hear it!

I digress.  Although I love and appreciate art (and spent a summer studying art history in Florence, Italy), I do not travel to see art shows, art museums, or art galleries anymore.  Something about kids and a budget?

Google has made life so amazingly easy in a lot of ways, but one particular awesome thing they do is called Google Art Project.  They are seeking to bring the art museum experience into your home and workplace by providing virtual walking tours (similar to Google Maps Street View) of major world museums.  Google is seeking to democratize art consumption through technology.

A thousand years ago, most people never saw an image. People who lived in a town might have seen art in their local church or temple but only the very wealthy could own images. In the sixteenth century, Henry VIII sent the painter Hans Holbein across the channel so he could see what a woman he was considering for marriage looked like. Throughout history, images were anchored to a place. Today, images are everywhere and infinitely reproducible. They may even be surpassing text as the dominant form of communication…The Google Art Project is an initiative to provide thousands of high quality, high resolution images from museums across the globe in one place, making art’s history, meaning and beauty available in ways never possible before. –Google Art Project

Right up there?  That’s Starry Night by the master Vincent Van Gogh.  Of course, that’s just the first image that popped up at the MOMA–you can find every piece obscure or well known.  I can check out what my local art museum the Indianapolis Museum of Art has on display, too.

I can see so many applications for this tool, from homeschooling to personal browsing to discerning your taste in art.  There is such a vast collection of art all in one place, all “sharable”, and searchable.  This is what Google does best, and it’s amazing when it is applied to something you love.

In my home, the art freely flows.  We make messes, we explore, we paint, we sketch, we color with Crayolas.  We experiment with color mixing, we experiment with different tools to get color onto canvas or paper.  One thing we haven’t done, though, is appreciate what has come before us.  I think it’s time to change that.

Here it is, Mother’s Day night and I am reflecting on the craziness of this day. Of this month. And, the month to come. The packers arrive on Tuesday and by Saturday, I’ll be flying to Tampa while my husband drives with the boys. We close on our new home on Tuesday, just to begin the unpacking process in the next few days. Of course, as soon as we’re settled-ish, we’ll be welcoming our fabulous fourth in August. This mama’s head is swirling, but in times like these, I am on task. On a mission. And I’m going to getter done. Our day was low key celebratory-wise — and mostly filled with packing and pre-moving checklists. But tonight, I took a moment to appreciate all I have been blessed with. These three, soon-to-be four miracles that make every day worth it. These tiny people, that I would do anything for. And, who will never understand just how I feel until they have children of their own.

This week, some of my favorite children’s-but-great-for-grownups-too artists Renee & Jeremy released a new CD that has the most amazing cover and video of Coldplay’s “Yellow”. It so beautifully encompasses my thoughts this evening as I embrace the stillness for a moment. I thought you might enjoy it too:

It might only be May, but here out west things are already starting to look a lot like summer. We’ve been exploring outside and by default the kids are in great moods and the house is cleaner. Double score. The other day, I took the kids to the lake nearby to feed the ducks our old bread and we were surprised to be greeted by a friendly turtle. The kids sat there for a good five minutes waiting for him to poke his head back up. I took this shot before we continued on our expedition; spending a good part of the afternoon circling the lake in search of him.

-We’ve also been playing car wash over and over again which was inspired by this post. Instead of playing in the bathtub, the kids and I took two big buckets filled with warm soapy water, toothbrushes and the Hot Wheels collection outside to the backyard. They were out their for hours; I kid you not.  They are fascinated by anything to do with playing in the water including run off in the neighbor’s gutters so I’m sure we will be giving this rainbow colored river a go as well.

-Do you have a little one in a a booster seat and you’re still buckling them in? I just ordered one of these for Jack- he loves being able to fasten his own seat belt and now I only have to worry about buckling the other two. Yes, I have THREE car seats. Trust me on this, I’m practically a certified expert.

-Quite possibly, the most perfect cookie for warm weather months. I’ve made these babies four times after discovering the recipe- including a gluten free version using this flour for my little brother who has celiac disease. This one is a crowd pleaser folks.

-Im obsessing over this gorgeous sequined camera strap. Well whataya know? Sunday is Mother’s Day!

-Every year I plant tomatoes and every year something goes wrong with them. I’m hoping this article will save me from heartache. I really need good tomatoes in my life this summer.

-Where I live, its already warm by breakfast time and my go-to hot oatmeal just doesn’t sound as good these days. This recipe from Alison as well as this one have thankfully reinvented breakfast for me during the heat.

-These acrylic green and coral tumblers from Target’s The Shops put me right in the mood for summertime’s lemonade in the backyard. They are out of stock online but Ive seen them all over the stores.

-Speaking of lemonade…Basil Lemonade? Trust me on this- so, so, so refreshing. Definitely my new favorite summer refreshment!

-So have you been on Spoonflower yet? I spent hours on this site while I was working on Violet’s nursery a while back. Im breaking out the sewing machine again and onto a new project to commemorate the kids’ birthdays using this Star Wars fabric for Jack and this mermaid one for Ru.

-Whoopsie daisy…you forgot to grab a Mother’s Day card and you don’t want to fight over the three mediocre ones that are left at your nearest store? Print this one or that one on a nice thick card stock and you’re good as gold.

- A great quote from a fantastic article that reminds us of our bond as mothers this Mother’s Day. “Despite all of our differences as women, moms have one thing in common: we are all warriors for our children in so many ways. And our stories bind us.” So very true.

8:02am – Get Clay and I showered and dressed.

8:07am – Technical difficulties. today of all days. We are launching our e-course. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

9:04am – Have to finish up a few freelance jobs before I head to California tomorrow morning. Off to the grocery store.

9:06am – Pit stop. Don’t judge. I love Diet Coke.

9:56am – The grocery store is 35 minutes away. A long car ride and a big grocery store trip is a good reason for a doughnut stop. At least that is what I tell myself anyway.

10:15am – Groceries for the next few days. I am heading to California for a Dole event, so I figured I would be nice and stock the fridge with some beer for Wes.

10:51am – Home sweet home.

11:00am – I know that it might be weird, but I have to clean my kitchen before I can cook in it. I also have to clean it before bed. I get it from my mom.Totally weird.

11:04am – I also clean out my fridge every time I go to the store. I get rid of anything questionable and wipe down all of the shelves.

11:15am – Time to get cooking. First up, soup and sandwiches for Van’s.

11:50am – Set up soup and sandwich shot. Clay and I eat this for lunch. Clean up and start over.

12:22pm – Start a caramel sauce.

12:45pm – Caramel Sauce with apples for a piece for Betty Crocker.

1:11pm – Next set up, flatbread.

2:01pm – Another for Van’s. This time it is dessert pizzas.

2:37pm – The sad state of my dishwasher. Most days, she is begging for mercy. This is the third load of the day.

3:20pm – Dump my images onto my hard drive. Red needs to be edited.

3:35pm – Will and Ava come home from school. Time for homework. Like how a pencil shoved up an elbow cast becomes a reading tracker?

5:00pm – Cannot go to Monterey without a mani/pedi. So much better.

6:35pm – Tuesday nights are for Dave. We facilitate Financial Peace University at our church.

8:15pm – Home from class, put the kids to bed, pack for trip, write two articles that need to be submitted in the morning, kiss the kids goodnight.

1:21am – Bed. Need to get up for a 5:50am flight.

Accumulate. The first step to reigning control over your child’s creative clutter is to set up a single spot to collect completed artwork. The ideal scenario is to establish one container—a collection bin—placed in a convenient location in your home. This could be a bin that you store on a bookshelf near the front door, a lidded wicker basket or a canvas box on a console table in the entry way, or a vertical file box on the kitchen counter. The key is to have one spot for each child’s artwork that makes it simple to file items away.

Appreciate. Whenever your child comes home with a new piece of artwork they’re particularly proud of, appreciate it by putting it on display in a special place in your home. Create a gallery wall in your child’s room, or frame favorite pieces using inexpensive acrylic box frames. Or, establish the refrigerator door or an oversized magnetic board as your home’s art gallery. As new favorites come in, cycle the old pieces into the collection bin and put the newest pieces out on display.

Incubate. Let your child’s collection bin accumulate artwork over the course of several weeks or months. This incubation period will make it easier to cull through the artwork and make decisions about what to keep permanently.

Edit. As soon as your child’s collection bin gets full, edit, edit, edit. Keep the truly special pieces—those your child is especially proud of and those that tug extra hard on your heartstrings. You don’t have to keep it all and you’ll actually be more likely to enjoy the pieces you do keep if you edit the collection down the very best and most special pieces.

Organize + Store. Finally, organize and store the keepers by age or grade level. Here are a few ways to approach this step.
•    Artwork books. Your child’s artwork book can be as simple as a 3-ring binder with sheet protectors. Or you can 3-hole punch artwork and place it directly in the binder. For over-sized artwork, turn the paper sideways, punch holes and then fold the art to fit in the binder. Or, look for oversized books such as the Original Digital Printer Album from Itoya. These books come in a variety of sizes up to an 18” x 24” poster sized album, making them a perfect solution for oversized pieces.
•    Photo books. If you don’t want to keep original artwork here’s an alternative. Snap a photo of each special piece of art and the artist. Then print photos and put them into a traditional photo album or photo book. This is also a terrific solution for 3-dimensional projects as well as art made with food. (Think fruit loops glued onto construction paper and macaroni art.)
•    Collages. To create your own artwork collage, start with a whole lotta’ artwork you love, an artist canvas in the size of your choice, scissors, decoupage medium, and foam brushes. Then, channel your inner child, get messy and create a masterpiece you and your child will both be proud to hang on the wall.
•    Artwork boxes. Perhaps the simplest storage approach of all is a box or portfolio. You could go as simple as a clean, unused pizza box, or invest in archival safe boxes designed just for artwork—even oversized pieces.

Just as our kids experiment with their art, don’t be afraid to experiment with your organizing process! Pick and choose the steps that work best for you and your family so you can better appreciate and collect those works of art.

Aby Garvey is the founder and co-owner of simplify 101. Her passion is helping people create real and lasting change in their lives by getting more organized. Aby believes organizing is a fun and enjoyable process, which is why she developed a whole new way to get organized—simplify 101′s online workshops. Get a taste of simplify 101—and the organized life—with their FREE, simple-to-follow guide How to Create a Command Central Binder. You’ll put together a home reference binder that will help you get organized, save time, and minimize paper clutter and the stress that comes along with it! For more great organizing tips and information, visit simplify 101.com or follow their blog, Facebook, or Pinterest.

So, when I learned that this month was all about “A Day in the Life” here at The Creative Mama, I had this idea to chronicle my day in snapshots. In doing so, I realized that my days were pretty boring. I tried to spice it up a bit ;-). [Larger, readable version HERE - you should be able to save and open in PS or zoom in on your browser]. Some notes:

• Yes. I do eat. Plenty. I forgot to take pictures of that. Probably because my husband makes the meals around here. And thank goodness for that or else we would all starve. No lie.
• We are currently homeschooling. And by “we,” I mean my husband is doing everything. Bless him.
• I spend more time at my computer than I care to. Working to remedy that.
• I spend more time on laundry than I care to. No clue as to how to remedy that aside from renting out clothes to my kids so they won’t go through as many outfits in a day.
• On days when I don’t have sessions at night, I usually end up staying up late to proof a session. On those days, the “start” and “finish” lines in my gameboard would probably intersect ;-).
• Evidently, I like the British spelling of the word “thornE.”
• When I went to post this today, I about fell out of my chair when I saw Stacey’s post. TOO FUNNY!!!!! I *almost* dumped this whole idea because of it, but then I thought how cool it was to see how similar our days were! And how my life used to be when I had an infant.  Made me a bit wistful…even remembering how much sleep was lost.
• BONUS QUESTION: I’ll send a $5 iTunes gift card to the first person who can tell me who I was listening to while on the treadmill that day. ;-)