One more plug for planning day (and how I spent mine)

image by Lotus Head

Recently I talked about how wonderful, amazing, and productive it is to get out of the house and have a planning day.

The Lord bless him, my wonderful husband, for two years in a row, has all but ushered me out of the door, practically ordering me to Panera to go do my planning. This year we were all sick with all colds, so I got a later start than normal. But it was still wonderful.

Here’s what I did:

• Try not to do a weird, giddy laughing thing in my car as I’m driving out of the neighborhood, alone, to Panera. Cause that would be weird, giggling alone in the car.
• Pull into Panera at 10:45 and use most of my willpower to not immediately order two full sandwiches, a croissant, and a bread bowl of soup for lunch.
• Find a table. This is quite a process. I end up looking like a dog turning around in circles trying to decide where to sit down: Set stuff down on table. Deem it too dirty and move to the next. Nope, too far from the fireplace. Let’s try this one. Move again when I realize I’m hearing a nearby couple talking about her mastectomy. This table teeters. That one doesn’t have a comfy chair…Ahh! Finally! The perfect seat.
• At this point I did feel like I had done enough to deserve a lunch break. I ordered the same thing I order every time, the Frontega Chicken Sandwich with Creamy Tomato soup and an apple. And a water, with a LARGE CUP, please. What’s up with the communion-sized water cups? Just because I like water doesn’t mean I have 1/6 of the thirst level.
• Anyways. Once I finally got down to business, I began by praying, as I mentioned in the earlier post, that God would direct this time. Because I kind of felt like you do at the start of summer vacation… You have all these goals and are just sure at the end you’ll have revolutionized your life. (No pressure, or anything.)
• The first thing that came to mind was that I need to pray daily for a few things. My kids’ salvation, whether or not we should have another child, and, that God would give me the strength to homeschool my boys, because I’d love to and the only way I can is if the Lord provides the way.
• Then, I started making my  “roles and goals” list. I mention that in my prior post, as well…You list all of your roles, and narrow down goals for each category. The roles I considered were: spiritual, preschool teacher, homeschool planning, wife, mom, homemaker, sister/sister-in-law, friend, health, and blogger.
• Here are a few things I realized:

1. I must think I’m a really good wife already, because somehow that category ended up blank. Sorry, Todd.
2. I want to find some good homeschool mamas to talk to. Suggestions, anyone? 🙂
3. I really would like to eliminate my attachment to the internet and computer. Or stop using it at the wrong times and for the wrong reasons.
4. If I want to have another kid, I want to be prepared. You know, meals in the freezer, exercising throughout the pregnancy, letter to myself not to flip out when I’m shushing a newborn 22 hours a day, ipod playlist of songs to help me do natural labor (that’s all it takes, right? A good playlist?)  See, if I plan enough, everything will be perfect. That is my mantra. Please don’t disagree with my mantra.

• Well, frankly, after making all these ambitious plans, I was tired. I think the Chicken Frontega was sitting gloppily in my stomach, and I found myself feeling a little sleepy. Checking my email mindlessly a couple times in a row for no good reason, that kind of thing. I fought it for a while, and then I thought, you know, this is my planning day. I can do what I want.

And what I wanted was to take a nap. So I packed up, went to my car, and took a 20-minute power nap. I woke up really rejuvenated, and also a little embarrassed when I made eye contact with the guy in the car next to me. I pretended I was finishing up a conversation on the phone and went back in.

I had a nice cup of coffee and spent the rest of the time working on our yearly budget, and letting my mind wander a bit. I don’t do that much, but it was nice and I learned a lot.

I came home so, so happy to see my kids. It felt like I had been gone for three weeks. The house also looked like I had been gone for three weeks. But I kind of missed it. Okay, I just said that because it sounded good. I did not miss cleaning the house.

But really, I loved my planning day. It made me think I should take one a few times a year to regroup!

How about you? Have you taken your day? What did you learn?

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