What did I think I would be?

If Life As I Live It isn’t quite what I had planned, what was I expecting? What did I honestly think would be my lot? There was a time in the eighties that I was convinced I would marry someone who played the saxophone. Instead I got the guy with the world’s greatest talent for buying good music online. I always knew I wanted to be a wife and a mom (in that order, thank you very much). But somehow I was pretty sure I’d get a basketball team of five boys. Hmmm. My first three kids are girls, and that is so absolutely the perfect way for it to be (not what I planned, but wonderful despite me). Then I prayed Matthew here. I tell him that regularly — that I had a little talk with God and told Him I’d be perfectly happy to do this (motherhood thing) again as long as I got a boy for it. And he is being raised by the three cutest mothers anywhere — his sisters. They are doing their best to make him a sensitive, gentle, smart Jedi/Ninja/Gunfighter.

Which leads me to another thing I planned — no weapons in our home. Yeah. That’s gonna work. Everything becomes a weapon in the hands of a kid who desires a weapon. Such as (and I am not making any of these up): clothes hangers, paper towel rolls, knitting needles (the girls’, I don’t knit), staplers, markers, kitchen utensils in all shapes and sizes, fingers, phones, carrots, bouncy balls, scarves, remote controls, marbles and (shudder) books. So we gave in and now own a full arsenal of all the finest plastic instruments of death and torture.

I always thought I’d have a headboard, but that (among other things) falls firmly under the budget category of Furniture We Don’t Need.

I planned to reach 5’10” and finally be tall enough for all my pounds. (But I have to say, when the sun’s behind me and my shadow is 15 feet long, I look GREAT!)

I’d pretty much assured myself that I would be competent at maintaing a savings account. Oops.

But on the other hand, I always thought I’d have a sweet, handsome, supportive husband. CHECK.
I planned on brilliant children. CHECK. CHECK. CHECK. CHECK.
I figured I’d write books, get them published, and hear people telling me I’m fabulous. CHECK. CHECK. (Always waiting on that last part.)
I thought I’d be the mom who makes bread and ice cream and grows tomatoes in the summer. CHECK. CHECK. CHECK.
I just knew that my kids would love to be obedient. (Can we put a check on three out of four? That’s still WAY above the curve.)

So I will probably always make plans. And someone, watching benignly from The Universe, will shake his head and chuckle. But the things that matter, the ones that will bring real happiness, they come through. Every day. CHECK.