If I were traveling on the Mayflower I would pack…

When I was teaching 2nd grade, I LOVED telling my students about the pilgrims and their journey on the Mayflower.  We talked about the fact that the Mayflower was a small ship packed with over 100 people, all their belongings, and possibly some farm animals.  There were bad storms, foul smells, and cramped, damp living quarters.  Many pilgrims got sick from these kind of conditions.

It must have been a miserable experience!

But there was a light at the end of the tunnel for the pilgrims.  They were journeying to freedom!  They were willing to suffer through difficult circumstances in order to find life and liberty in the name of Jesus.

I always liked to ask my students, “If you were a pilgrim on the Mayflower, what would you pack for the journey?”  I’d usually limit the kids’ responses to only 5 items since there clearly wouldn’t be enough room on the ship for a lot of extras!

Just for fun, the other night before bed I asked the Happy Hubby what 5 things he would have taken with him on his pilgrimage to America.  We agreed that the Bible was a given. 🙂

Here’s what he said…

1. Laptop (since America in the 1620’s had free Wi-Fi everywhere.)
2. X-Box (Halo Nights with William Bradford and Squanto.)
3. Pizza (having corn every day just won’t cut it for the Happy Hubby.)
4. Journal
5. The book Pilgrim’s Progress (“because it sounds hopeful.” :-))

Here are the 5 things I would take with me on the Mayflower…

1. My Family Recipe Cookbook (I don’t remember how to cook anything without having it written down! I’m guessing, though, that they won’t carry refrigerated Pillsbury biscuits at the Plymouth Rock grocery store…)
2. GRANOLA (favorite snack EVER.)
3. My flat iron (you’ll find me in the grave one day snuggling this item.)
4. My favorite book, Stepping Heavenward (to keep my perspective :-).)
5. My cases of glitter (I might not smell the greatest after being trapped on a ship for 2 months, but at least I’ll sparkle.)

After some giggles, we decided to list the top 5 things our Happy Buddy would take with him…

1. Farm set (the Happy Buddy is OBSESSED with this horse farm set at the moment.  He drags us to play it with him a million times a day and when we try to be done and walk away the Happy Buddy becomes the Fussy Buddy.)
2. His favorite book (you can pull color cards out of the pages – the Happy Buddy could seriously pull those cards out all day long.)
3. Banana (the Happy Buddy can eat an entire one of these in less than 30 seconds – no joke.)
4. Nightlight (this is the first thing the Happy Buddy runs to see the second we get home from an event at night – it’s in the kitchen and makes all sorts of beautiful colors.  It’s almost hypnotic!)
5. PACIS (need I say more???)

It took about 1,235,674 shots to get the picture above because we had all kinds of issues with a little someone trying to steal the photo subjects…

Stealing the banana.

Stealing the pacis.

What a fun question to ask around your dinner table tonight!  Or what a great activity to do with your Happy Buddies!  Simply tell them about the Mayflower, set out a suitcase, and ask them to fill it up!  It will be so neat to see what they choose!

As always, I’d love to hear your responses – what would you bring on your trip?

Happy Mayflower Pack-ing! 🙂