The Best Laid Plans

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be bored for ten minutes. Then the phone rings and I know, break's over. My biggest problem is no matter how on top of things I get, things keep happening. 

Exhibit A:  For once in my life, I'm organized and ahead of the game.

I took my children to get hair cuts on Friday.  Why? Because school pictures were today. I'd even washed their uniforms so they'd look crisp and pressed for the occasion. (It's so not me). So naturally, last night, my middle daughter upon going into the room she shares with her sister to get ready for bed, discovered two inch chunks of hair on the floor.  Her younger sister had given herself a hair cut with preschool scissors....no bangs.

But she went to school thinking, "I look beautiful" thanks to her Dad and some creative brushing.

Exhibit B: Food

We try to plan out the meals for the week.  We purchase food for Monday through Saturday, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snack.  Recently, to eliminate the locust like swarm that attacks any groceries that come home the instant they are put away, I started Ziploc bagging up the snacks and labeling them by the date so as to make it clear, as clear as an Orc Captain, "THIS FOOD IS  NOT FOR EATING!" at least, not until Thursday.  

Tuesday night, I go to begin prepping for Wednesday. The cup board is bare.  Why? Where did the cans go? The boxes of pasta?  Where did all our drinks go? 

Apparently the school had started a drive contest in between classes to bring in food for the homeless.  The winning class gets a pizza party.  My second grader and kindergartner have designs to win, thus jumping the 4th grader and 6th grader into competitive action, and nudging the 8th grader to contribute as well.

What am I to do?  Even paring it down to one a day per kid results in a mass exodus of 25 cans per week. The contest lasts all of Lent.  That's 125 cans!

I started to protest before thinking...do I really want to resolve a fight that started, "But Mom, she's getting to bring more food for the pantry than I am. It's not fair!"  So now, I'm going to the grocery store.  I'm buying fruit, bread, milk and eggs. Considering learning to like coffee if only to have something to drink that I can KNOW will be in the food pantry when I go there. I'm also going to get a tray of cans at Sam's that they can donate from until it is gone.

Exhibit C:  In Sickness and Health

I was very proud of myself.  My son had suffered an ear infection and I had been hyper vigilant. He hadn't missed ONE dose of his medication. I hadn't even sluffed when his nose cleared up. We went the whole ten days twice a day, 1 teaspoon.  Most of the time around 8, I peter out.  But this time, it was like I'd given myself a gold star in motherhood. I was a real mommy, a responsible mommy, a competent mommy who had managed to not let minutia prevent her from doing what was right.  Pat on the back me.  

HOWEVER....

His eardrum ruptured from the infection and now I get to give drops in both ears three times a day for two weeks.  Cue screaming.

These are the days when you begin to grasp the purpose of children as organized by God. They are to thwart your plans. It isn't because God is cruel but because we need to be taught....again....and again....and again...that despite being in charge, we aren't in control.