Saturday, June 11, 2011

Plans are for buildings, not people

Today at the gym a mom asked me what my kids do all day without the "regiment" (her word) of school. I hope I was able to hide my feeling of disgust, as it took me a minute to compose myself. My first thought was "What a ridlcuous question!" I asked her how her family spent their Saturdays or vacation time, then (I hope) politely told her that for us, every day was vacation.
There are not enough hours available for me to describe how we spend our days. Each one has new and beautiful treasures to uncover and new passions to pursue. I rarely know what a day will bring, and even on the days I think I have a plan, there are more often than not detours! For example, Thursday of this week I sincerely believed that I would be sitting in a tube in the bay ALL DAY! I ran myself ragged on Wednesday ensuring there would be no chores or needs to be met on Thursday...if only!
The A/C on our leased Volkswagon decided to quit working. The car gets turned in next week and if it is broken at turn in we have to pay for the repairs! Kyleigh woke up Thursday morning realizing she had forgotten about a birthday gift she needed, and upon making Mr. Smith's linch I learned someone had used the last of the lunchmeat and forgotten to tell me! So Thursday morning was spent running to Michael's, VW and BJ's...we didn't get to the beach until after 1:00! And as soon as we arrived the kids all decided they wanted to go out on the boat and do some clamming....not at all what I was envisioning. However, it was a gorgeous day, the temperature on the water was much less than the 90+ degrees on land and everyone had a great time!
I was able to sit on the beach for a time while the boys headed out to their Tae Kwon Do class. Then the girls and I headed back to the house to start the grill anticipating having supper shortly after the boys got back around 6:15...are you sensing a theme here?! All of the sudden the sky darkened and so we turned on the radio, seems a big storm was coming down from New England bringing high winds, rain, thunder, lightening and hail! So much for throwing clams and fish on the grill! We ended up grazing well past 9:00 as we watched the storm and just enjoyed each other. I must say, the strawberry shortcake @ 9:00 was a little later than I planned, but very delicious.
I am so grateful to be able to live a life where we can roll with the punches and switch gears to accommodate every one's needs. We have fantastic friends and live in a place that literally changes minute to minute with each new tide and storm. You never know what you will find or what will spark your imagination.
So here's my question...what do other kids do all day with the regiment of school?