Wednesday, March 16

the best laid plans....

*note - i started writing this on monday. it's been that kind of week.

a few weeks ago, a lady came to our MOPS group and talked about organization. she focused on ways to "manage the chaos" that is in the home when you have little kids. she emphasized that the chaos is there, and always will be, so we need to find ways to manage it. i already do a lot of the things she talked about - lists, lists, and more lists, grocery planning, mean planning, calendars, etc - but it did remind me that i can do them better.

so this week i planned to start my new organized life. with managed chaos. we woke up at a leisurely time on monday morning (thank you, daylight savings time), i got my coffee, got my planner out, and started to plan. i planned my week in broad strokes, made sure our meals were all planned and made sense with our schedule, planned my day in detail. errands in the morning, cleaning, laundry, emails and sleeping during nap, workout in the afternoon, maybe a few more errands, in-laws house for dinner. it was a pretty great plan.

so we got going, made the rounds to different thrift stores and target in the morning (trying to find clothes for hiba and matthias for a wedding this weekend that can double as easter outfits - fail) and made it home by lunch time. got lunch on the table for the kids, planned what i was going to enjoy as soon as they went to nap, made sure the laundry was rotated so i could fold it all during nap time. i'm doing great. making my list and checking it twice. crossing things off.

and then J called. J is a teenage girl who is part of a group that i volunteer with for teenage mothers. and she was in labor. well, at least she thought she was in labor. and her mom's boyfriend had the car and her boyfriend's mom's car was broken, so could i take her to the hospital.

i didn't want to. i had my day planned and it was going great. i had a nap coming up, i was actually being productive. i didn't want to take a teenage girl to the hospital to give birth to her first child. J said i could just drop her off, i didn't need to stay. but i knew i needed to. she didn't have anyone else.

so i packed up the kiddos and went to get her. she was pretty unprepared - no hospital bag, no one to go with her, and no real idea of what was coming up. so i took her, got her checked in and called a friend to take the kids. she called her boyfriend who had just gotten off work and told him i was on my way to pick him up.

i picked up M, her boyfriend and went back to the hospital. and then we waited. she was definitely in labor, but it was more of pre-labor, so there wasn't a lot they could do for her. no drugs till she progressed more, but they wanted to keep the monitor on her for 30 minutes at a time, so no moving. after what seemed forever on the monitor, she finally got to get up and walk some, which i think helped.

i spent all afternoon there, answering her questions about what was coming (although maybe i lied a little about how awful giving birth is...), making sure M had food to eat so he didn't have to leave her side, a quick run to target to get her some things for her recovery, talking to the nurse and asking the right questions since J didn't even know where to start. when i left, they were about to officially admit her, hook up an iv and help the process a long a little bit.

she gave birth to a healthy baby girl at 11:30 that night, via c-section. i visited her on tuesday and she was beaming. so was M. and M's mom was there, helping out a lot just like a good grandma should. i'm going back this afternoon to take her some formula for the baby and snacks for her.

so now it's wednesday. i'm finally caught up on my to-do list and back on track to manage my chaos. back on track to live my wonderfully planned life. i think it's good to manage chaos, to make plans, and to try to follow them. but i'm also thankful for the things God throws at me that i haven't planned for, the times when He lets me help, just a little, to manage chaos.

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

I love it! Well put. :)