Plans vs. Reality

I like to plan.  I plan out schedules and meals, shopping lists and household organization.  I used to plan out my life months and even years ahead of time.  You can just imagine how all of that has worked out!  Currently, I am a planner who is stretching my flexibility muscles a little (or a lot) more every day.

Today being the first real day of the new year I had some plans of getting off to what I thought would be a good start - earlier wake up, earlier start to school for the day, etc.  Needless to say, things have not gone according to plan.  Here's how today has worked out so far...

I hoped to wake up early this morning so that I could be dressed and ready for the day before the kids woke up.  Instead, I was woken up by two screaming kids who needed more sleep.  I obliged.  Minutes later, a third kiddo came to the bed grumpy as anything.  He also needed more sleep.  Again, I obliged.  And we all slept soundly until 9:17am.

I hoped to start school by 9:30am this morning so that we could have our lessons finished before leaving for the baby's check-up this afternoon.  Instead, we took our time getting dressed, brushing hair, and eating breakfast.  Everyone was ready to start school at 10:30am.  Everyone except for the baby, that is.  He needed to nurse.  I obliged.

I hoped to push back school time to 11:00am.   But the baby is still nursing and it's already 11:30am 12:00pm.  The bigger three, after a handful of meltdowns and arguments, are happily stuffing their Christmas stockings with toilet paper and maxi pads playing.  At this rate we will have to start getting ready for the baby's check-up before we ever gather around our school table.

*Deep breath*  Releasing old plans.  Releasing revised plans.  Releasing the ideal that life should follow any of my plans.  Preparing to be flexible.

New plan for today: Stop planning to make plans that have to be changed into new plans that never work out as I planned.

So, how do you navigate your day?  If you're at home with littles, what's your compass for deciding when to plan, when to hold to the plan, when to throw the plan out, or when to just go with the flow?