There is nothing like packing up a household for a two-plus week trip to make one realize all the things one needs to do more regularly. Things like cleaning out the fridge and medicine cabinet. As I was digging through the (high, locked) closet where I stash the medicine to collect the “if I don’t bring this stuff someone will develop a fever of 104 on the Mass Pike” kit, I realized that I hadn’t cleaned out the cabinet since our last trip to Maine as everything started expiring in September 2006.

By the time I had made my pile of expired medicines that have never even been opened, I had nothing left except three bottles of Children’s Benadryl. Which is a good thing as the allergist’s receptionist and I have been having quite a go-round about calling in a Zyrtec prescription for A, as she is somewhat insistent that one doesn’t give Zyrtec for urinary tract infections. And while she is indeed correct on that point, the one she doesn’t get is that I am fairly certain that A’s chart reads “urticaria,” not “urinary.” As of yesterday she had grudgingly agreed to check with him and see if he was indeed willing to prescribe us more of the medicine that he had clearly already given us as it was in her chart, complete with dosing instructions. We’ll see. But if not, I have enough Benadryl to dose the whole family if needed, albiet every six hours instead of once a day…

Anyway, once I realized that I was doomed to a child running a high fever during the vacation, we moved onto the fridge. And I was right, there were a few things growing in there. And by the time I had composted or otherwise disposed of everything in there that had expired or was going to expire by the time we returned I was left with two bricks of tofu, one container of hummus, and a thing of mango-chutney. Yummm. We’ll eat well upon our return.

Which leads me to my latest proclamation, starting right after vacation I am going back to menu planning. M’s travel schedule be damned. And I am menu planning for the kids too, because like the bad parent I am, I generally don’t serve them what we eat except on Sunday’s to avoid the massive battles that occur. Which is another proclamation in the works, but I haven’t quite wrapped my head around how to solve that sticky issue, so you’ll just have to wait and see how I try to dig myself out of the rather large hole I’ve dug surrounding the family dinner table (or lack thereof).

So in case you haven’t figured it out, we are off to Maine for a while. There is a rumor on the streets that high speed and wireless internet is being installed at Nana’s on Tuesday, so you might get live! vacation! blogging! while I sit outside the kids door at night to keep them from waking my sister’s kids with their bedtime antics. But if I don’t keep to my every other day posting resolution for a few weeks, I have a good excuse…