Things don't always turn out the way we plan...

...it seems I'm telling my kids that all too often.

I remember when I was younger (before I had kids) how I would sit around imagining my life...a nice home, 2 cars in the driveway...probably a truck and a nice sized SUV...several kids (at the time I probably still assumed I'd have 6-8), schedules to keep, etc. I always dreamed about having my kids in sports and dance and piano and having all sorts of places I'd need to drag them. The idea of being a busy, always-on-the-go, type of mom...excited me. That's what I wanted.

I'm still not 100% sure if it's fortunate or not, but things don't always turn out how we once imagined. We are currently renting a house, which suits our needs just fine. We have 1 car which means my husband gets to drive it to work everyday while I sit around at home trying to keep myself as well as our4 overly active children content without breaking each other's necks let alone their own. I have attempted soccer with my girls who are the oldest. Rylie is 8 and Alyssa is 6. They lasted a couple months, but it just wasn't for them. About 4 years ago they were in ballet, which they LOVED, but the teacher they had, had a baby and then was not going to be continuing with her lessons.

The fact that we only have the 1 car makes finding lesson times that are convenient and prices that are reasonable for us, somewhat difficult.

In the last year or so, Rylie started showing some interest in playing the piano. I had asked around at church for piano teachers, but it seemed the ones around the neighborhood were pretty much full. Once Rylie turned 8 though, I was more anxious to get her into lessons. (I always wanted lessons when I was young, but the oppurtunity wasn't available for me until I was in 8th grade and I only got to take them for a year.) I finally found a lady on craig's list who was offering piano lessons for $10/30 mins a week AND she offered evening lessons. The only downfall was that she lived about 20-25 mins away. I was willing to deal with that though, since I'd be able to take them in the evening after Josiah got home from work. The girls have been in piano now for about 4 months and have been doing very well. We have since switched to me taking Josiah to work 1 day a week and having piano earlier because evening was just too late for everyone. I've been trying my best to plan other errands, that need to be run, on the days that I have the car.

Today while the girls were at piano, the boys and I went down the street to spend the hour at Wal-Mart. We walked around, took a bathroom break...ever since Trenton has been potty trained, he's gotta try out the bathrooms just about every place we go. We continued walking around, checked out the dead fish in the frozen section. Their favorite thing is usually watching the "monsters", which is what they call the live lobsters, that they'd have in that tank in the seafood section. For some reason this WalMart doesn't have one of those...Anyway, after catching Trenton for the 100th time after he'd promised he'd "be good" ( it's so cute the way he says it...."I won't run around, mom, I promise"....and I ALWAYS fall for it), we went and grabbed a case of water, since we were out at home, paid, and left. We picked up some Subway for lunch before heading back to pick up the girls. After piano, we had just enough time to run home for the girls to brush their teeth before heading to the dentist. We dropped the boys off at my sis-in-laws on the way, as to not annoy the office workers with their curious little hands. Their visit today was a simple cleaning and x-rays. Sadly they both have cavities but we will survive, I think. After the dentist, I needed to go by the Post Office to drop off a package, then we headed back to pick up the boys. After getting home I had to get dinner started. (Hawaiian haystacks) And after writing this long post, it's just about time to head out the door to pick up Josiah. I do enjoy the busy-ness, but I'm terribly grateful for the days that I have at home where I don't have to be running around and hurrying at home between trips. There are days that I wish we had a 2nd car, but the first thought that comes to my mind when I start wishing that, is how much I DO NOT want a 2nd car payment. We are getting by with the 1 and for now, I'm happy with that.