All Part of the Plan

Those of you who know me, know I'm a planner. As a matter of fact, it is July and I spent the afternoon planning Braden's birthday part. Not too bad until you know that his birthday is in March =)


I've received a lot of good natured ribbing lately because of my crazy planning skills, but in my life, it is a necessity. Any mother knows what I'm talking about. Any mother of two or more especially knows what I'm talking about. And any single mother of two under four really knows what I'm talking about.

This is what happens when I don't plan for everything... at the beach with nothing to wear! Granted it was November so I wasn't expecting to be in the water...

I would love to be one of those people who floats through life and takes things as they come. I would love to be able to tell you that I don't already have a packing pile started for a vacation that I won't leave for for over three weeks. But I can't. I'm not that person.

Now, I will say that I am better now than I was before I had kids (and that is a scary thought!), but now I plan because of necessity. On the weekends sometimes we leave in the morning and don't get home until bedtime, so I have to make sure that I have the diaper bag, a change of clothes for B, swimsuits, towels, food, bottles, and pajamas because we never know where the day will take us. I have to have a schedule for almost everything. Tuesday is trash day, Wednesday is grocery day, Thursday is cleaning day, etc.


Several friends have recently commented that they would "die" if they had to go to the store on a certain day. I do this because it makes my life easier. I always say that if you plan for the expected, then you can much more easily manage the unexpected.

I want to be able to give my kids the best of everything, including my time. So, I feel like if I'm always running to the store, that takes away the precious little time we get to spend together each night. I also want to give my kids fun memories, and some of my best memories were my birthday parties growing up. So, I plan. I plan ahead. I plan so that the handmade invitations and decorations can be done at night after they go to sleep and I have literally months to work on them. But in the end, my kids and I both get wonderful memories.

Sometimes planning ahead takes a little coercion for the kiddos. Perfect example – last year Old Navy put Halloween costumes on sale the day before Halloween. They had costumes in the sizes that Braden and Amelia will wear this year at Halloween, so I bought them each costumes. Now, I immediately went home and asked Braden how exciting it would be to be a hamburger for Halloween next year. Now, he talks about his Hamburger costume at least once a month because he's so excited about it =)

So, while in my life, planning is the mother of necessity, it also allows me to spend more time with my kids doing what we love to do. Maybe one day I can be a little more like others who take life as it comes, and who knows, maybe someday some of you can be a little more like me. It's a plan =)