Plan B. Making the best of a bad situation. Alternate route. Plot Twist!!! Whatever you call it, moms come up with a lot of them. We’re masters. Because we have to be.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

You wake up with the full intention of being your ideal, productive, effective, Super Mom self only to be slapped by the cold, wet fish of reality.

Someone wakes up barfing. Or the dog has deposited…things…around the house. You are somehow out of milk and bread. The car battery has given up the ghost. The washer explodes. Anyone?

What do you do?

Yeah, I mean after the internal meltdown and subsequent “You can do this!” pep talk.

You get on with it. You make something else for breakfast. You grab the mop. Seriously contemplate killing the dog. And you make it work. Somehow.

My plan for this week was derailed when the weather forecast informed us that we have a full week, and then some, of 100 degree days. It was further aggravated when the daughter I’m 34 weeks pregnant with decided to drop into my pelvis yesterday evening, and is now making walking a bit of a chore (not to mention getting out of bed, or off the couch entertaining for observers). So much for the day of batch cooking, afternoons in the yard, and forget about running errands after noon (I could practically bake cookies in the car by the time we’re done in the grocery store). My well established routine has been uprooted and turned upside down. 

So, adapt and overcome has gone into effect.

The batch cooking will be done in, heh, batches; slow-cooked overnight. Cooling and packaging to be done in the mornings when our preschooler is still asleep. Gardening and time outside are done in the relative cool of the late morning. And my wonderful husband is handling most of the errands.

Afternoons and evenings at home have become a time of calm discovery for our daughter, who just yesterday evening discovered the wonder of electric blue and hot pink chalk on black construction paper. Totally her doing. I was expecting her to reach for her typical pink or purple paper and was planning on crayons. Nope. She made a glorious midnight moment of Florescent pink flamingos standing in extreme blue water…up to their necks for some reason, but hey, whatever, she’s three.

The other day, rather than a late lunch in the middle of early afternoon errands, we went to a local senior center in time to get in a bit of “dancing” before a five dollar lunch (they didn’t charge me for “the half-pint”). She had a grand old time watching the live band and running circles in an empty spot on the dance floor, then trying to do a line dance with a few of the ladies. They got a kick out of her antics. I got a great lunch. She got thirty minutes of full on aerobic exercise.

Then I decided to skip the park, and ended up putting down four dollars (again, the little one was free) at a local museum, and we took a tour through hallway after hallway of local history, being immersed in the cultures of many of the people who settled here over the years.

It’s not always bad when our plans get knocked for a loop.

When our washer finally gave it’s last gasp a while back, my husband and I took advantage of all the temporary space in the laundry room and did some long overdue decluttering and cleaning. His brother managed to find my dream set, with the pedestal drawers, for free!, from some friends who were moving.

My husband’s work is currently getting a surprise audit, so he’s having to be at work several hours earlier every day for the next couple weeks. Yes, it’s annoying, but the paycheck will look nice in our account, and it’s forcing me to get up at the time I had been talking about for forever in order to make sure he packs enough food and gets a morning kiss goodbye.

Life rarely goes the way we planned. Use it to your advantage, or use it as an excuse…you’re choice. I’d prefer to come out on top, though. Sometimes it takes a few days, but it’s generally worth the work to find the positive and get it done.

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And now, to get this song out of my head:

Dick Feller ~ Makin’ The Best Of A Bad Situation – YouTube

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Now that I’ve laughed it off, time to get back to my irregularly scheduled afternoon. I hope yours has some laughter, too, and that the reroutes at least have nice scenery.

 

My kids are in school… Now what do I do?

Stashed at Mary’s