Plans...phooey

Apparently it was Woody Allen who said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans." I don't know the context, and I really can't imagine as I believe he is an avowed atheist, but maybe God does laugh at our plans. Not because he plans to ruin our plans, but he just knows. He knows all, and he knows that we can not control our lives down to the very smallest details.

My last post was about planning...writing down those small details so as to not forget to do them. Making lists so I can check those details off as "done." The last two days couldn't have been farther from my plans. That's just the way life is, isn't it? So, last night, after running through the previous two days' unfinished lists and shaking my head sadly, I crossed off the (now) unimportant tasks and copied the important ones down for today. That's just the way life is.

On Monday, my mom came over to help me paint the foyer. It's been a darkish, brick red color for about four years and I had grown pretty tired of it. It was also getting nicked up, like walls do with healthy, active children around all day. I had chosen a new color called "grass cloth." It was a pretty green (on the chip), a medium light (on the chip), golden green, just a little reminiscent of avocado greens from days gone by. It looked very natural and I thought it would look good next to the natural brown tones in the living room, which is next to the foyer. After one wall, I should have stopped. After one coat, I should have stopped. My mother and I were both being uncharacteristically optimistic. It ended up being neon lime green. It was the color I imagine a teenage girl might paint her room just to tick her parents off. When Doug arrived home from work he said, "No way, no how, it's not even a color that occurs in nature."

Just a small sample of the offensive color -- though you really don't get the full effect of the neon with just a tiny bit of wall.

But shortly after Doug came home we had a ball game to go to, so for the time being the neon green foyer was forgotten. We took the kids plus one down to our local minor baseball team ball park and watched America's greatest past time (I still think it is!). We enjoyed Dime-a-Dog night (where else can you buy ten hot dogs for a dollar?), peanuts, Cracker Jacks, cotton candy, and $8 beers, not to mention strikes and balls and pop flies and more than a handful of hits and runs. Good stuff -- I could do that often. I promised Doug that when the kids are older, we will go by ourselves and stay for the whole game -- no one nagging for popcorn and ice cream and...

Though she was already treated to hot dogs, Cracker Jacks, peanuts and cotton candy, dad said "no" to popcorn. She later said it was probably a good thing or she might have thrown up, but she was putting on a "spoiled brat" face here.

Anyway...back to making plans. We arrived back home after the game, having stopped at the store for some ice cream sundae fixings, with our "plus one," ready for a teenage boy sleepover. We shuffled Faith off to the shower and the boys headed to play games when Noah came to me in tears that his gerbil was "dying." Not dead already (like here a few weeks ago) but dying, and indeed she was. Two out of four kids were in tears and dad had to come in and take the poor thing away. After calming them both down and getting Faith to bed, I met up with Doug in the kitchen at almost 11 o'clock and asked, "Do you think we could pile anything else on this day?" Nothing had been life altering, but it sure wasn't the day I had planned.

The next day dawned no different even though my plans were all laid out. At some time between bedtime and morning, Doug decided he would take time off work the next day to paint the foyer a different color. In my own mind, I had decided we would live with it for a while and get the other projects finished before coming back to it. He decided he couldn't live with it another day. So instead of doing the things on my list, he sent me off to the paint store to pick a new color (and I'm the one who picked the first one -- don't send me!). So off I went, and I stood in the paint store for at least 30 minutes looking at one inch by three inch chips of paint trying to make a decision. I wanted to ask the complete strangers in the Home Depot paint department to pick for me, but I finally made a decision and bought my paint. After dropping the paint at home, I headed to the grocery store to get weekly groceries, getting home just in time to put some burgers on the grill (at least that was in my plan!).

Shortly after lunch, I learned that my brothers and my sister-in-law were coming for dinner, so I abandoned my afternoon plans and instead prepared a dessert and tidied up the house (around Doug who was still painting). After the Shrimp and Grits recipe was doubled and served with a House Salad and bread, everything was cleaned up and finally, goodbyes said, I collapsed on the sofa with a stack of bills to be paid and laughed at myself. "Who do you think you are trying to be someone who is organized?" I laughed.



PS Doug has some electrical work to finish in the hall, but I'll be sure to take pictures of the finished "room," as well as post the pictures of the finished dining room.

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