The Plan

What happens to my daily plans

Most moms I know can understand this picture.

That was this past weekend for me. It's most days, actually. Life constantly is teaching me to be more flexible, which goes against my natural grain, but is necessary to have some peace in the family and in life generally.

That doesn't mean a plan isn't useful; it absolutely is. A plan is a roadmap, and without it, we can wind up pretty far into the weeds.

So while I ended up in the weeds sometimes, I was able to course-correct and stick to a general direction of fulfilling the plan.

To recap parts of the weekend:

• Kal needed an unplanned doctor visit on Friday. He's okay now, though.

• Dozens of errands, all important, but time-consuming.

• A trip to Jefferson St. Bar and Grill in Converse, Indiana, to celebrate my passing the real estate exam earlier in the week. Tender beef brisket, and who really cares what else? The brisket is just so good.

• A whirlwind of trainings and applications and checking off of lists for preparing to work in real estate.

• Washing the dishes and sweeping the floor somewhere in there.

• A mega shopping trip for all sorts of clothing and shoeing the kids and I needed. Ugh. I could do without that, but the kids were busting out of their clothes. The farther I get into a shopping trip, the more I decide certain stops and items just aren't necessary enough for me to endure a longer headache.

• A girls' night with two of my friends. That conjures up images of wild party times somewhere. Not for us. We sat around one friend's dining room table with snacks and one Smirnoff malt beverage each and chatted for several hours. None of us get too rowdy, but we sure enjoy the time together.

• Listening to and watching my children tell their stories and demonstrate this or that. It's tempting to pass by their interests because there is always something else that seems more pressing at the time, but I don't want to overlook them. I want to enjoy them while I can.

• Compiling lists, lists, and more lists. Oh, what fun. It really is fun for me. My family rolls their eyes.

• Enjoying a cute, wild bunny at my friend's house. It was just sitting like it totally belonged in the alley.

• Sewing of several sorts.

• Playing silly games with Kara where we whisper everything. And she takes everything absolutely literally. Then I say it's time to go to bed when I've had enough.

• Surveying with a sinking feeling the growing pile in one child's room of the... the... collection of clothes and shoes and blankets and pillows and Legos and books and trash. Every part of the house needs some sort of daily maintenance, and I can't pull it off every day. He/she doesn't know where to start. I do know where to start and how to maintain a level of order, though something is lost in the translation between my instruction to him/her and his/her reception of it.

• Being refreshed at church and with the people there.

• Kal and Kara having friends over after church.

• Seeing and holding one of my little nephews. Holding a baby is one of the best things in life.

• Making a clean-out-the-veggie-bin beef vegetable soup with clean-out-the-fridge garlic bread, which was just a pizza dough roll and a block of cheese that needed to be used. Both earned seconds from several around our table.

And the biggest, best part of the weekend:

• Kal and Kara were baptized this morning by Kris and the pastor of our church.

My heart is full.