One of the first things I normally do when I’m planning a short family excursion is to check the weather forecast for my current location and my destination.

This weekend, as I laboriously planned our ski day trip to Pennsylvania, figuring out who would take the two-year old on the kiddy snowtubing slope and who would drop the six-year-old off at ski camp before heading for some private slope time, I mindlessly forgot to check the weather. Saturday was a beautiful, unseasonably warm January day, ripe for any winter sport your heart could desire. I chose to run errands  and do some shopping, taking for granted that winter days are as fickle as old-timers.

If I completed one simple task on my list, I would’ve postponed the shopping for my choice of one of the two subsequent rainy days of the long weekend.  It made all the difference for our trip – we didn’t go on it! And in a military household where “ya just never know”, wasted days are like throwing money away – you can not afford it. The experience was a lesson learned in sticking to my travel To Do list – check the weather before you plan anything. You can save yourself a lot of time and disappointment.