Plan B

Today's morning agenda was a busy one: go to the post office to mail some packages of things we sold on eBay, drop off recycling at the recycling place, go to the library, go to the hospital to visit two friends who are sick, and go to the mall to look for something (and, of course, eat an Auntie Anne's pretzel while there!). But all of that came crashing to a halt after I got everything loaded into the minivan and the boys buckled into their car seats, then...the minivan wouldn't start. This happened last week, too; but that time, my mother was home and we could simply transfer to her car and continue on our merry way. Today, however, she had taken our Old Order Mennonite neighbor to the store for some medicine, so I had no transportation option. Time for Plan B...

By nature, I don't do well with quick transitions. I like to have a plan and follow it! Early in our marriage, if we were going out to eat, Jeff used to drive me a little bit crazy by picking a place to eat, then on the way to that restaurant saying, "Oh, maybe we should eat at Jalisco's," or "I've always wanted to try this Chinese place; maybe we should go there," or "Here's our favorite pizza place; let's go there!" He would do that the whole way to our restaurant--literally, pointing out all the other restaurants that we could go to. These days, we still do that to each other for fun...but it wasn't fun as a newlywed. When I had my mind set on Italian food, I didn't appreciate him trying to offer Chinese or Mexican or anything else!

So this morning, I was a bit frustrated by the change of plans--and the lack of control I was feeling as I saw my whole schedule go down the drain. As I write this, it seems so silly to admit I was feeling that way; it shouldn't have been a big deal at all. But it was. So I kept my mouth shut and didn't say very much as I unbuckled the boys from their car seats and we traipsed back into the house; I didn't want to say something I would regret later! It didn't take too long to realize that while we already had our jackets and shoes on, it would be a great time to go outside and carry in wood! (We have a lot of wood in a wonderful woodshed on our property, and we carry it onto a glassed-in porch on the side of our house. Even though the weather has been much warmer and we haven't been burning as much wood, we still need a fire about once a day to take the chill off. And the pile of wood on the porch was very low.) So outside we went!

And what a wonderful time we had!

It was warm...mostly sunny...so spring-like...full of such promise of warmer days and new growth. I got my exercise by carrying in wood, and the boys improvised and found ways to entertain themselves--running around, playing with sticks (and later picking them up and putting them in a bucket to be brought into the house to use as kindling for our fires), pumping water from our cistern, swinging, pushing a play lawnmower around, etc. It turned out to be a truly wonderful morning, and I almost spoiled it by having a sour attitude about my changed plans. Let this be a lesson to me!!!