Expactations

The weather was just beautiful and as a lover of sunshine,  I had our evening all figured out.

It involved a lot of being outside.

Dad's away on a work trip this week so I would bake the three of us a fine family meal of chicken nuggets and fries because we like to keep it healthy when he's gone. 

We would then take said healthy meal out to the front lawn, spread out a picnic blanket and enjoy the weather through dinner. Listening to the birds sing and watching the wind blow through the trees sure beats the four walls of a kitchen anytime.

That would be followed up by bike rides, games of horse, and maybe a walk around the neighborhood before going in for the day.

All of this playing outside would work really well in my favor of the old routine of putting the kids to bed an hour early when dad's away on a business trip.

(I dread the day that they figure out that I do this. It's worked really well in mama's favor while it's lasted though.)

So that was the plan anyway.

Until we had to make an unexpected errand run after school. It didn't take long and the kids were well behaved. I had a proud mother moment or two, walked us back to the car and we were on the way home when it started getting oddly quiet.

Not like they're up to something quiet-just plan quiet.

I glanced in the rearview mirror and could see sleepy eyes but we don't live even a good ten minutes across town so no big deal.

Then I pulled in the driveway, opened up the garage door and more quiet. They were out.

With all the graciousness of an elephant on a tight rope I managed to carry them in and lay them on the couch one at a time, thinking surely I could make enough noise and move them around enough that they would wake up.

Well, no. That didn't happen.

So when they were both inside sleeping soundly on the couch and the garage door had been closed behind me, I looked around and thought shazam. Time for something productive.

That thought left my mind about as quickly as it had entered and I curled up next to them and was probably sawing logs in no time.

Now, let me just explain to you something about my littles. THIS NEVER HAPPENS.

When the babies turned into big kids, naps went out the door. I grieved a little and quickly realized I was going to have to turn into an early to bed, early to rise woman if I was going to survive.

Oddly enough for a woman who worked night shift for years, it worked wonderfully for all of us. But as a result of that I'm sort of like a mean drill sergeant about bed time.

Now you see where this story with seemingly no point is going.

Bed time at the usual time-it was NOT happening around here tonight.

And you know what, that's ok.

I looked at those two precious little sleeping people on the couch today, panicked for a minute or two about how this is going to make our morning look tomorrow and then refocused.

My littles were tired. They needed to rest.

And if that means our evening routine got all out of whack? So be it.

If tomorrow morning is full of grumbles and sleep walking children because of a late bedtime tonight, we will survive.

I had to let go of my expectations this evening and just let them be.

A lot of what God has taught me about life through motherhood is to let the expectations go.

More often than not we're trying to live up to something that's unfair or unattainable anyway.

Now-don't get me wrong-I'm not saying that a regular routine is a bad thing. I love our routine. Our routine is good.

What I am saying is that time and again I've just got to learn that one odd day isn't going to kill us. Roll with the punches.

And more than that-enjoy them.

We had the oddest evening which involved running to Weigels after dark for a fountain drink. I guess staying up late makes one a bit thirsty. But you know what? It was fun!

We giggled as we drove and the kids were singing every lyric on the radio as we made our way back home.

That's something I would have missed if I hadn't  let go of my expectations and embraced the unexpected.