spontaneity used to be my strongsuit

My trip to Atlanta.
I had to plan in advance. Once upon a time, you could call me up and say, "let's go take a road trip" and i was on it. But this time around, I have 4 kids.
I called all my relatives/ friends and no one was in town, so alas, this planned-unplanned trip was going to be at a hotel. I chose wisely: it was a hotel room with 2 full beds, a queen pullout, and a partition in between. I figure, Nyla's in a pack n play, ella and I would share, and zoe and Ada would share, and Robbin (if she DARED to join us) would get the queen pullout by herself.
We left when we woke up.. I packed extra just in case my kids peed in their seats (you never know)... 20 minutes into the ride, zoe complains about a pain in her side. I figure she's just got to poop. She makes me pull over and help her on the side of the road. Well, it's one particular spot on her lower right quadrant. Can anyone guess what I think it is? I'm like, well, we'll reconsider in an hour when we get to columbia. She starts crying harder and harder, holding her side... i'm speeding, starting to freak out. 2 minutes before I'm supposed to turn off, she just starts staring out the car intently. I figure, maybe she's in shock or something.
Zoe Are you ok?
Yah, I feel much better... uhhhh ok.
I'm sorry I have a schedule to keep. I didnt pull over till we were supposed to at 10am in columbia. I didn't pull over again till I had to feed the baby at 1 (no you don't get a snack or lunch til then)... and then I rolled RIGHT into ikea.
We actually had a pretty good time shopping, talking, eating sweedish meatballs... then we decided to go to H&M.
It seemed to go well (despite the fact the meters on the road were 3$ an hour!!!!!!) but as we went to leave we see a ticket on Robbin's car. We check the meter and it still has 5 minutes on it... yep, she got a ticket for letting the meter run out... huh? We call the meter people (4 minutes left) and they promise that they'll come as soon as possible... oh wait, they came as the meter ran out... she called the manager and anyone else who was bored... finally by 11pm, they promised she could rip up the ticket (after checking the computers etc)
we arrive at our hotel... oh did you know you're not guaranteed your room when you book through hotels.com? We were given this AWESOME room with 1 bed (yes all 4 of us slept in it.... tightly)... and this shower that I can only assume they bought from a hospital.
Meanwhile they also booked a family reunion and some sort of convention so there was yelling/ slamming doors way into the night ( I heard an alarm at 2:30am as a man said, ok timer's up, go to your room).
Next day was aquarium day... oh wait, the line was like a 2 hr wait to get in , so....... off to the world of coke we go. So tired by the time we were done, we walked to our car at the train yard and hugged goodbye...
added bonus: got lost downtown for an hour so the kids didn't get to eat lunch until 3pm... oh and we were kicked out of our hot breakfast (which consisted of hot english muffins/ after toasting) for not having proper shoes at 8am... all in all.. a memorable spontaneous event for the books!!

sing along: rise and shine and....

so we went to the movies and watched Ramona and Beazus. I just cried the whole movie. Why you ask? What a sweet reminder and conviction at the same time.
I have been such a perfectionist lately. Now, you might not realize this because my house looks like a whirlwind of nasty, and I've been debbie downer, but adding a 4th girl to the house, multiplies everything exponentially and I've been super-serious trying to make everything work. I want summer to be fun and babies to be trained and young-uns to be educated and still have everything I want to do and oh, yah, I'll add a couple new things to my life...
And in being this perfectionist, I've lost sight. I've been thankful, yes, but I've also been angry and not myself. Ramona and beazus reminded me that things are only what you make it. Only you can make things fun.
this is what i've been teaching ella for like a year now. She sits every afternoon talking about how bored she is, or if something is done that she didn't want to do, she gets so upset and never enjoys it because she's too busy pouting. For instance, we went to fireworks, but she didn't want to be outside because it was hot, so even though we had friends and were at a park etc, she didn't have "any fun" because it wasn't what SHE wanted to do. My response: it's only as fun as you make it.
so in honor of such a cute movie I shall write a few things I've always believed about a day.
1. once in a while, you should laugh at something that's not necessarily funny. like taxes or mud on the walls.
2. When you laugh, you should definitely throw your head back. how funny could it be if you don't?
3.it's ok to do something not your age.
4. when you hear a song that you know atleast a couple words to or the beat is good, dance, and occasionally sing it at the top of your lungs.
5. Atleast once a year, dress up. Now , this means different things to different people, but dress up.
6. As a mom, you are entitled on the first and last day of school to embarrass your child and all in carpool and to do something that would have gotten YOU in trouble if you went to that school.
7. take time to smell the roses or think outside the box... time is precious, but will make much better memories if you do.
8.if your child asks you what you want to be when you grow up, say something way off base like : I wanna be the guy who alphabetizes books at the bookstore. that way they think about all the things THEY could become.
9.If your child isn't creative, be creative for them. If you aren't creative, let them teach you.
and 10. make up bedtime stories. even if they're incredibly boring, your kids will appreciate it in time. we had the adventures of Princess Bella and Aunt Shmally... they always found an animal that was turned some outrageous color and the only way to fix it was some weird adventure.

So, when I get frustrated (as of late) that there's not enough time and too much laundry. When i'm tired of coloring, and puzzles suck. When I just want them to stop fighting. I think as an old lady, I'll go in my room and dress like I did in the decade I was born and walk outside (with my children) to water the plants... see what happens.