Our packing piles have officially started in the living room. We leave for 30A soon (our first time going!), and it's about a six-hour drive with all four kids (well, Jadyn is an adult kid, but you know what I mean). With a road trip it's easy to overpack, there are no TSA restrictions to hold me back, so I had two choices: get systematic or bring too many things we won't use and waste space in the car. I got systematic, and now I have a good system down for staying organized. I like to pack early in the week so I know if I need to get any supplies, and have enough time to grab them if I do.

Clothing:

This time I'm packing the kids sudoku style, and it's such a great space-saving idea! Poppy and Elliott each get a 3 by 3 grid laid out on the bed: three tops across, three bottoms, and three layers. The rule is every top has to work with every bottom. If a shirt only matches one pair of shorts, it goes back in the drawer. The pieces are overall pretty neutral, so everything can be mixed and matched. That's 27 outfit combinations from just nine pieces!

Because it's a Florida beach trip I'm not doing heavy layers, but this method could easily work for any trip, even one where colder weather layers are needed. And instead of one of Poppy's layers, I opted for a sundress she can wear over her suit to go to the beach.

Each kid's grid goes into their own packing cube, and all three cubes fit inside one suitcase. (Jadyn packs her own bag, 19 years old and well past letting me plan her outfits.)

And because our rental house has a washer, I'm only packing enough PJs and swimsuits for half the trip and doing one load mid-week, three PJs and three swimsuits each. That means we're traveling with half the clothes we'd typically pack, because I'd normally do a full outfit per day per kid and always end up with items they never wore. Now that I'm packing for Clive too, I need to be really efficient with space, because I have his diapers and extra supplies to pack.

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Food:

Being prepared with food on the way is a huge help, I do this for planes and especially for road trips. On the way there it's nice to pack a lunch because it eliminates a stop and any wondering what's for lunch. Egg salad sandwiches, beef sticks, goji berries, chia pudding, cheese, and fresh fruit, all packed the night before, and we eat at a rest stop or a park where they can run around for fifteen minutes.

And for the meals we do eat out on the road, we use the Seed Oil Scout app to find restaurants near us that cook the way we eat at home. It's a map with little color-coded pins that show what each kitchen cooks with, butter and tallow versus seed oils, and you can filter for things like grass-fed beef. It's how we find the organic spots in towns we've never been to before, and I love using it to find good coffee shops too!

The drive:

Poppy and Elliott get one small backpack each of toys and books for their seat, and whatever fits is what comes. We typically don't do screen time at home unless it's Friday, when they get to watch a movie. But on the road they each get to watch two movies, and they'll nap and do activities in between. The week before the trip, we don't do any screen time at all, because I told them we're saving it for the drive, and now they're looking forward to it.

The backpacks and movies keep everyone happy on the drive. Keeping everyone healthy is the prep I care about most. Especially when traveling, vitamin C is a must for us. Summer asks more of our bodies than it looks like, long days in the sun, travel, new environments, and nobody is getting sick before Poppy's birthday beach trip if I can help it, so we've been on top of our doses. The front seat gets the console kit that I always have on hand in the car: snacks that don't melt, wipes, and a little zip pouch where our vitamin C lives. That's Pique's Daily Immune, the vitamin C plus elderberry we take daily, and it's become one of the few supplements I never leave home without. It comes as a little packet you drink, no water needed (but it tastes so good added to water too).

I used to take the pill version of vitamin C and thought that covered it. It's not just whether you take vitamin C, it's whether your body is able to use what you take. Regular vitamin C is water soluble, so a lot of what's in those pills passes through you before your body puts it to work. Pique's Daily Immune is liposomal vitamin C, meaning the vitamin C gets wrapped in a tiny layer of healthy fat, almost like it arrives in its own little delivery package. It's designed for superior absorption, so more of it gets delivered where your body needs it instead of washing out, supporting daily immune health and collagen production for brighter, more radiant-looking skin. And healthy skin isn't just about what you put on your face, it's about what your body has to work with every day. It's also made with real organic elderberry juice, no artificial sweeteners, no fillers, and the kids loveee the taste, so they each get their tiny bit and feel very included.

If you want to try it, my link is piquelife.com/brittanyvc, for 15% off, and every order has their 90-day money-back guarantee.

Arriving

Before packing our beach supplies, we checked what our rental provides, and they really thought of everything! Chairs, umbrellas, even a golf cart to drive around. So we’re not packing beach chairs or towels, those will all be there. We’re bringing an ice chest with our fish and meat from the farmers market, because we can count on the quality, so that just leaves the sides to buy from the store (I’m also bringing all the dry ingredients to bake Poppy’s cake and cupcakes there). Depending on what time we arrive, we’ll hit the local Whole Foods that night or first thing the next morning. I like to get the food set up for the week early, so we can grill while everyone swims and pack lunches to take down to the beach.

And when we pull in, there's an order to it: the ice chest comes in before anything else does, fish and meat straight to the fridge, then we deal with the rest of the car. After that we always unpack, it's the method I've followed on past Disney cruises to stay organized, and I'm doing the same here. Living out of the suitcase seems easier, but by the end of the week it's a mess and nobody can find anything, so each kid's cube gets organized into a drawer. It especially helps to unpack the toiletries and get settled that first day. I pick the laundry corner the same night, I bring a portable laundry bag that all the dirty clothes go in, so the mid-week load is grab and go instead of a scavenger hunt around the house. And the beach bag gets packed before bed for the next day and lives by the door, sunscreen, hats, water bottles filled, so mornings start on the sand instead of hunting for things, and the vacation begins! :)

I’ll share how it all goes! Thank you for being here.

xx Brittany

Last week Jadyn and I went to an event together for Altar’d State. It’s so sweet because they’re faith based and started as a Christian book store. Then they started selling clothes, noticed the clothing was doing well, and expanded from there.

They don’t only carry faith based clothing, it’s other styles as well, but I loved this tee:

The event was first at their new store in the Green Hills mall then at Cheekwood, which is a gorgeous botanical garden that we go to often to walk around.

My jeans are from Abercrombie and I love the fit of these. They’re slightly baggy and high rise, I’m wearing the tall length. They’re one of my most comfortable pairs of jeans and I’ve been wearing them non stop postpartum (more on that in these posts here and here). My top is nice for hot weather as well as breastfeeding friendly, I’m not wearing many high neck tops at the moment to make it easy to nurse him on-the-go.

Antiquing

Last week Jadyn, Poppy, Clive and I went antique shopping while Elliott spent time with Anthony. We checked out the Franklin Antique Mall for the first time and it was so fun to walk around and look at all the items with so much history.

I found two of these chairs for $25 each and thought they would be great in the garden!

We usually love going to estate sales each weekend, and here are some of my best tips and how to find them in this post here. Antiquing feels like the more curated version of an estate sale. It’s already been sifted through and the better items are there, so you pay a bit more but you have better options in front of you.

In my garden

We’ve been harvesting mini sweet peppers, onions and tomatoes. The kids have especially been loving the sweet peppers and eating them as snacks. These Hunter boots have been my go-to for all things gardening and I just ordered this color for fall, especially because they’re on sale right now! These Mate 100% cotton leggings are so comfy and I wear them all the time. I also have them in black.

Fresh tomatoes are growing so nicely, I’ve been loving them with salt and pepper eating them fresh but they’ve been also so delicious for hamburger night.

Onions are also from our garden.

New arrivals

I haven’t been in a Target store in quite a while. I usually order delivery (more about our drive times and how we live here in this post). Clive was taking a nap and Jadyn said, should we get a matcha and go to Target? Anthony was going to stay back with him, so we hurried to get Poppy and Elliott ready and the four of us headed out. It was my first time leaving Clive at home while going out and it felt so weird!

We wanted a strolling Target run rather than one for necessities, which is when I’m most likely to get myself in trouble. I’ll pick something up, tell myself I need it, then put it back two aisles later. I’m pretty good about making sure what I buy will be useful and beautiful. I narrowed it down to these:

This doormat is for Jadyn’s door. I don’t have a butter dish and liked the look of this one. The berry bowls, I already have the white one and loved the cranberry. They’re so great for setting the table with berries or any fruit that needs airflow. I’ve been looking for a good roasting pan and this one is stainless steel. I was standing in the store looking up the reviews to see if it would last, and they were great, so I got it. That night I made chicken and potatoes in it. Such an easy weeknight dinner with plenty of leftovers for lunch.

The kids picked out these figurine toys and they’ve been playing with them all week. Poppy picked The Little Mermaid and Elliott picked Toy Story.

I’ve been investing in kitchen items that make weeknights more efficient to cook. This pan is so nice with all the functions it can do. I love the steaming option, I didn’t have anything that makes steaming easy. It can do all these things which is pretty cool: braise, sear, steam, strain, sauté, fry, boil, bake, roast and serve, and it’s oven-safe up to 450°F! The sage color is so pretty too.

Clive is getting so big. He’s 2.5 months, wearing 6-12 months and 17 pounds!

Love this little striped set for summer.

Sometimes when I get him from his nap he’s on his back, having rolled over from his tummy. None of my other kids ever rolled this early. I don’t think he knows his own strength yet!

This organic cotton mat is perfect for picnics or the beach. This photo is from Cheekwood recently at their summer night event.

We’re planning our beach trip to 30A, which is somewhere we’ve never been before and where a lot of people here vacation. It’s on the Florida panhandle, about a 6 hour drive from us. We’re really excited to check it out for the first time. My long time friend Jenna and her family will be going with us too and we’re celebrating Poppy’s 5th birthday there. More about what I’m packing in this post here.

xx Brittany