my spontaneous weekend

Since I married Dave and became the matriarch of my wonderful little family, I have learned to live by very set schedules. Take one look at my google calendar and you will see 15 (literally, 15) different calendars layered on top of each other. Each individual in my family has their own calendar, then there is the regular parenting time calendar, the holiday parenting time calendar, Maya's school calendar, Maya's school district calendar, our family meal plan, the phases of the moon, weather...etc, you get the point. They're all color-coded too:)

Now I'm certainly not trying to complain about schedules right now, because I am happy we have such a good schedule and a good relationship with Maya's other home. BUT this scheduled life I lead does not leave much room for spontaneousness. I cannot remember the last time I decided to drive somewhere on a whim and do something without making plans. Until now:)

One recent weekend, the stars aligned and I had an opportunity for something unplanned! Dave was busy working all weekend, Maya was at her Mom's, and I didn't have a thing on the calendar.


NOTHING.
Did you hear that?!
This is a rare thing.

The other amazing thing is that an old friend I haven't seen since we were 17 years old was also free for the weekend. Her husband was out of town and she was only a couple hours away.

Knowing this might not happen again for eleven years, I took my chance. I was on Cloud 9:)

The weather was good and I packed some essentials. I figured that since my friend only lives 45 minutes away from my sister, I'd call her and reserve the "basement suite" for the night. Then I loaded the van, got the boys settled in for our adventurous day, and I hit the road with my favorite little guys. I was armed with my Caribou Coffee (thank goodness!) and my work phone. I'm on-call every other weekend, but the issues that come up are easily handled remotely. Most of the time.

I write schedules for work.

Looking back, it still amazes me that I was able to just hop in the car and go.


The drive was uneventful. My boys travel well, thankfully. Plus I timed our departure so MacKean was completely ready for a nap and it was close enough to Michael's naptime that his eyes got heavy shortly after I started driving.

A couple hours later, we were at my friend's house. It was a great visit! We mostly talked about what we've been doing these past 12 years. Genevieve has traveled the world on the missions field with her husband and I really hope there is another time soon for us to go deeper in our conversations. She also has an amazing blog that I think you should all check out.

After a few hours, the kids were ready to eat and get moving. So we said good-bye, and the boys and I continued our spontaneous adventure. An hour later, I was at my nephew's basketball game. My parents also happened to be visiting my sister that weekend, so after the game we all went swimming at the hotel. Unfortunately, there was poop in the water and Michael and MacKean didn't spend much time in the pool. Still, it was great to see my sister and her family. That doesn't happen often enough.

The next morning, I saw some old friends at church and enjoyed the last bits of freedom. In a few hours, my spontaneous weekend would be over and it was back to reality a little too soon. With the van packed and the boys buckled in their car seats, I hit the road.

The first 15 miles on the way home I drove through ground blizzard conditions. And snapped some pictures.

 Don't worry, I was looking at the road the whole time.

At first, it was really neat to drive through the swirling snow.

Then it made me a bit dizzy, and I hoped it would be over soon.

Thankfully there were plenty of other cars on the road, and only one of them was in the ditch.

As quickly as it started, it stopped. The roads were perfect after that, and I'm very thankful that my snapshots turned out so nicely! I can't wait for my next spontaneous weekend...because I plan to do this more often....if you can plan to be spontaneous...hmm...