Swimming Lessons; Life Lessons

My 5 kids and I are all doing swimming lessons this week and next. I've had the older 4 doing lessons several summers so have come up with the idea of taking all the towels and dry clothes and other necessities in a laundry basket and handing them to the appropriate person at lesson's end. This year is more complicated (and more fun) because Caleb and I are in a Mommy and Me class at the same time. As you probably know, this is a program designed to acclimate little kiddos to the water in a positive way. We sing 'Motor Boat, Motor Boat' and 'Ring Around the Rosie' and 'The Wheels On the Bus' etc. with different actions and activities. It's a kick. The downside is I can't watch my other kiddos and cheer them on AND the basket is less well-organized. I'm also letting the older kids be more in charge of bringing the appropriate clothes to change into--so far we have had to deal with missing underwear and forgotten pants. Thank God --I mean it--the day my daughter forgot her pants I had accidently brought two pair!! It touches me how God can even guide our mistakes.

Which brings me to this: My family had been invited to a surprise birthday party for my good friend, Kathryn to be held last night at 6:30 p.m. Since the invitation had been given by e-mail and the title was "SHHH, It's a Surprise" or something like that, I didn't want to reply and give away the secret if she would happen to see the message. So last night I loaded everyone in the car and we headed off toward Twin Falls with time to spare to grab a birthday card on the way. Well, about halfway there I got a call from my husband asking if we could come pick him up from work over in Jerome. In my head I was mentally doing the math, figuring we could run over there, bring Kevin back over to his car in Twin Falls and still make it to the party. So we got to Jerome only to find that Kevin was still not quite ready to go. We waited and waited. Some of the kids fussed about being late. I was trying to be calm. Finally my husband got in the car, only to inform me that he actually needed to go back to our town for a church board meeting. Then I felt like fussing!! I was thinking he was being inconsiderate and like I was letting my friend and her family down. Well, at 7:15 I left my friend an apologetic message on her phone saying it was just too late to come. My daughter was crying. I felt horrible. (We ended up going to the store and buying our own cake mix and frosting since we were in the mood for a birthday celebration)

Today my friend called on the phone and I apologized again for missing her party. And then I heard 'the rest of the story.' It was her daughter, about 11 years old, who had sent out the invitation, apparently not realizing that Kathryn had already been invited elsewhere for her birthday. So, had we gone on with our original plans, no one would have even been home.

When am I going to learn not to stress when things don't go as planned? God is so in control.