I tried to start this post with talking about how ‘for the most part, I’m pretty laid back…’ but then I’m not sure if my guilty conscious got to me or if the Lord was warming up a lightning bolt, but I erased it.  Quickly.  I’m pretty high strung, but I think that contributes to some pretty unique characteristics.

Planning 

 

 

Okay, so lets be honest.  I live and die by my calendar.  I laughed (out loud) the other day when my husband told me that one of his co-workers reminded him of me because her PowerPoint decks weren’t on point and she was struggling to get information from co-workers.

Story.  Of.  My.  Life.

Put a footer out of alignment, change a date, add something spontaneous (I shuddered typing that word) into my schedule and I develop this twitch.  Literally.  Y’all, it shows up in my eye.  Like real life, honest to goodness, fluttering.

But in all seriousness, I do try to plan (and well) to make sure that I am prepared.  That doesn’t work out so well when I am planning to relax for a weekend and my husband throws me off and says ‘Let’s go do X, Y, and Z.’  One word, Holmes.  #veto

 

My son gets this though – his motto through life is spontaneous.  I’m learning to adapt to it, but it’s difficult to wrap my planning fixated brain around this.  But for him, it’s very freeing to not live and die by a calendar.  I almost wonder if this is the generational change, too?  There’s such a shift in my generation and his and I see a lot more of the ‘ride by the seat of your pants’ mentality in his generation and a few years earlier.

Keep Them Moving

This is one of my hardest tasks.  Keeping a family of 4 moving.  Parents with more than 2 kids, I friggin’ salute you.  I can’t even manage to keep 2 of them dirt-free sometimes, much less teeth brushed, fed well, and off the soda.

 

I do love having one of each though.  We’re not at that level where it’s every day is gymnastics and football and trying to be that ‘soccer mom.’  Today, I just have to manage getting them to school, figuring out football practice and engineering classes and getting them home for baths and bedtime.  It’s been pretty nice to have them close together, too.  Most of the time, they play well together.  But there are always those times where they seem like they are going to string the other one up.

Just yesterday, E was screaming at S for looking at her and S was screaming at E for not looking at her.  #sigh

It is bad if I’ve threatened to drop them off for hard labor?  #KiddingNotKidding

 

 

It’s funny how ‘angelic’ and ‘sweet’ they can be.  Every now and then, I have a moment of clarity with these pouty little faces where their sweet little eyeballs turn into daggers of fire.  I mean, look at that face.  It’s pout-tactic.  (That’s a word, I promise.)

But then, there are days like this.  Days I see the softer side of the kids.  The days they absolutely love every critter and creature.  They are soft little country bumpkins.  They are charming and they are gentle. Little S has learned how to catch butterflies and I see him being a real animal guardian.  Little E, she struggles with being nice most days, but she tries.

Then, there’s pictures like this – when her true personality shows up and she makes the perfect character in a movie.

She scares you too, right?

Anyway, plan gently when you have small kids. They will change your plans – and if you’re married to a husband like mine, he’ll just mess up your plans anyway, just to prove a point.