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Summer is on the way and just like the beginning of the school year, we all have high hopes for what we will accomplish: instagram-worthy family vacations, the perfect healthy tan, a garden full of produce…etc. But let’s be honest, after about 36 hours with one or more schedule-less, hormone-riddled, bottomless, squabbling, chaos-evoking prisoners to see after, you’ll be throwing that “no iPad” rule right out the minivan sunroof. You need a back-up plan.

Here are 5 things that will help you keep your cool and enjoy your summer too.

1. Audible.  It will keep you, the “Keeper of the Peace and Navigator of Traffic” sane. I lucked out our last long car trip by choosing a Harry Potter that ended 10 minutes from the hotel on a 9.5 hour drive. Whew. Thank you, Jesus and J.K. Rowling. We’ve loved all the Rick Riordan books as well. (Dave Ramsey’s book for kids wasn’t as big of a hit… but maybe they learned something between the bouts of complaining. Keep in mind, switching audiobooks mid-ride is a VERY effective form of punishment 🙂 ). Just beg the grandparents for a summer-short or year-long subscription. Or you can just get an audible trial for yourself and get two free books as your reward for being warden. You deserve it.

2. Bug Spray that works and doesn’t smell like it wants to kill you too. This one smells like cinnamon and gets the job done. Trust me, if there’s a tick or mosquito within a mile, it is after my youngest. The current record is one mosquito in the car on a 15 minute drive and 15 bites- only on her. She’s very good about putting this on because it actually works. The only problem is remembering to reapply after swimming in the creek.

3. Sunscreen that’s easy to apply and doesn’t look ghostly. I got our first bottle from our dermatologist and the price really $tung – until that bottle lasted through one summer and into the next. Ahhh, sweet. 🙂

4. A reward system for the prisoners… Amazon Prime movies or shows. Seriously, what’s easier than “Hey, we are in this together… If you follow the rules and we can avoid the ER, we’ll make popcorn and watch a movie tonight.” Result: Perfect Angels. Well, at least no riots… you’d better come up with a scheme to decide who gets to pick the movie, though. I like to hold my choices over their heads if they misbehave – especially during the decision making process. They don’t call me Captain No Joy for nothin’. I run a tight ship and what’s worse- I happen to LOVE Pride and Prejudice (swoon… I could watch it over and over and over… Pure torture. Enough said.)

5. Nutritional yeast. Okay, this may take a bit of explaining. If your house is anything like mine, your young ones are testing the waters of self-definition, power, self-control, image, etc… and one or more will end up a vegetarian at the very least. It is a challenge to get this age group to eat anything, but B vitamins are easily deficient in their seemingly random foraging habits. Some vegan friends introduced us to this amazing umami/miracle/almost-cheesy goodness a few years ago and it is absolute CRACK (and is rich in B vitamins). We use it on popcorn, pasta, pizza, salad (Oh man, is it good with olive oil on a salad!) and it has enough of the B-vitamins to keep your only-noodle-eating “vegetarian” healthier and your personal brain sane (relatively). (Soapbox moment: Vitamin B “Deficiency” is defined at much lower levels -and therefore not treated as early- in the USA compared to countries with lower incidence of Alzheimer’s and dementia- such as Japan.) Read more about the importance of the B vitamins.

That’s the short list of how we get through the summer at the farm. With a little luck, we may even have a couple of instagram worthy photos and a lot of veggies at the end of it too!

please comment below on things that help you and your family make it through the summer! 🙂