The Best Laid Plans....

Notice the new quote on the side bar. I like to change it occasionally and I think the current quote is appropriate for the final stretch of our experiment. So, here I'll tell you about the day's plans, and then we'll see how they went awry.

Today I planned to get up, shower and groom, get breakfast on the table, family scriptures read, lunches made and out the door in time to pick up kids for the car pool. All this was accomplished with the indispensable assistance of my supportive spouse. I had a class to teach this morning and I couldn’t have done all of the above without him.

Once at school I had an remarkable experience with the leadership education class my son is in. I have been team teaching all year and go in periodically for leadership in action events we’ve planned as a class. This week is the National Student Mock Elections and because it is a presidential election year, it is a big deal to be involved in the voting process with millions of other students around the country. Our leadership class voted early this morning so they can be election officials on Thursday when the rest of the school votes. You may wonder where this is going and how it applies to no more grocery shopping, and I’ll get to that. We spent the last ten minutes of class today in a mock debate and I have to say I was supremely impressed by the depth of character demonstrated by these young people. When it came down to my final question (I was the moderator), “How can YOU best make a difference for good NOW? In this class, with these peers, how can you effect positive change?” I have to say, their answers were simple but profound and they all knew exactly what their right answer was. I was so moved by their honest, specific responses that I have been pondering all day what my answer to that same question would be. Whether I look at it in the context of my home and family, my neighborhood and community, my country and the world. Or, just in context of this blog. How can I make a difference for good NOW? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? It makes me think of great plans for this blog and the vision I originally began with. I’ll come back to that question before I close, but for now it brings me back to the title of this post. The best laid plans…..

Here’s a break down of the day after my glowing morning:

Best Laid Plan #1 - Help Tiff (accommodating sis-in-law extraordinaire) defrost her freezer.
Gone Awry - Nearly had a house fire caused by burning a pot of water over here, left the rest of the thaw process to Tiff.

Best Laid Plan #2 - Spend the afternoon writing because there will be plenty of time to clean and make dinner later.
Gone Awry - I forgot about my appointment to visit a neighbor and didn’t have time for either cooking or cleaning once the kids got home.

Best Laid Plan #3 - Savor my 30 minutes with the kids when they get home, then spend the remainder of the afternoon attending to needful things as they arose.
Gone Awry - The kids were 30 minutes late getting home (an honest mom moment of short-term memory loss), KC had to hurry off to an activity that would take all evening, Brennan was stressed and swamped with homework, with the hustle and bustle every kid needed something simultaneously.

Best Laid Plan #4 - Have the house straight & dinner under way before Don comes home.
Gone Awry - Don arrived 30 minutes early, homework took the entire time from when Bren got home until it was time for me to go. The positive side of this Is that he and I had some very meaningful exchanges on the topic of stem cell research and gene therapy that we wouldn’t have had if my plans had gone as I’d set them out. Needless to say, the huse was in disarray and dinner was no where near being under way.

Best Laid Plan # Fifth and Final - Make dinner when I come home from my visit to the neighbor.
Gone Awry - When I got home I had a bunch of hungry kids and a helpful husband who was not sure what I had planned for dinner other than my quick, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll do it when I get home,” as I went out the door. So, he picked up where I left off with homework.

Resolution - When your best laid plans go awry, pack every body up in the car and head for the closest burger joint. That’s what we did and everyone, including me, was happy.

Back to my question, and I’d love your comments on this - If you had the power to influence your little part of the world for good using your blog, what would you do? I’d love to hear all your best laid plans, don’t worry about what they say about those, whose to say “awry” isn’t right where you want to be?