You never know what the day will bring. You know what they say about the best laid plans. You can plan, plot, map out your day, but invariably a spanner will get in the works. Yesterday was a case in point.
I woke relatively early for me…considering it was Thanksgiving Break and a Saturday. My husband made breakfast for all of us. I trailed down after a few moments…minutes…hours…uh not hours but I didn’t exactly bound out of bed. My husband had prepared a delicious breakfast of waffles, eggs, and fruit. We all ate breakfast together. The Teen surfaced shortly after I did. She appeared for breakfast after much prodding. I read a magazine. In the back of my mind, I knew I needed to get down to my office to finish a blog post and prepare a package for shipping. The two assignments were intrinsically connected.
I put the magazine aside and marched myself to the office. After some time the blogpost was done. I did a bunch of other projects. Packaged the item I needed to send. Checked on pickup schedules. Calculated what time I needed to leave the house in order to mail the package. Once I knew the time needed I mobilized the troops. Easier said than done.
We’re not early risers. Except for the kid. We’re a group of people who dilly dally. A shower for me. A change out of pajamas for everyone else. I gathered the package and my purse. Instructed the kids to find a book for the journey. We’ve all played way too many games for the kids and too much TV for me. With the kids all set for the journey, I waited for my oldest to be ready. Did I mention dilly dallying? Yep, that’s us.
Once on the road, we headed to drop off the package. After the dropoff, it was off to Target. While at Target, I would have to say that we didn’t have the best time. Not to get in to details, but it wasn’t the most fun I have ever had. The item we were looking for wasn’t there, but that wasn’t the issue for our Target trip of discontent. Suffice it to say that we left Target and headed to our next stop in virtual silence, Once at our next stop…the mall…it was all about regrouping. Getting those ducks back in a row.
My method for getting back on track was a request that everyone make a commitment to not do or to do something during our restaurant meal. I won’t go in to details, but I was proud of everyone for making a commitment to get back on track. The “almost derailed day” was close to being back on track. Now all we had to do was successfully enjoy our meal out.
And enjoy it we did. Call it a reset. A reboot. Once settled in to our booth at the restaurant I breathed a sigh of relief. Our meal was back on track after a little conversation.
We had wanted to take the family to P.F. Chang’s for dinner. Tonight turned out to be the perfect night. We eat Chinese food all the time, but I knew that I wanted to kids to branch out of their comfort zones. One kid only eats kids’ meals. Another kid only likes Wonton Soup when we are at a Chinese restaurant. Another kid is a very adventurous eater. As we perused the menu, suggestions popped up from everyone at the table. Dumplings. Crab wonton. Honey shrimp. Kung Pao. Lo mein. And green beans.
Our meal was a success. I splurged and ordered a final dish. I have always wanted to try lettuce wraps. The vegetarian wraps were super tasty. My son liked the lettuce without the filling. My daughters tried the filling. My husband was a little too full. I’m proud of my kids for showing me that they could get back on track. I needed a bit of a reboot too!
