Not so perfect vacation

I tend to over pack for vacations.

Ok, that's an understatement.  Basically, I try to figure out every situation that I'm going to possibly be in and prepare and plan (and pack) to make sure I avoid not being prepared. Camping is a signature thing of mine that I tend to overpack for.  I think as a perfectionist that is the one thing that bothers me the most, is the fear of not being prepared for something.

So when all said and done, my car is usually the one that looks like something from the Clampett Family from Beverly Hillbillies.
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However, this past weekend we decided to take the kids camping for only 1 night.  Because my husband knows me and because he knows we were only going for 1 night (and bringing the dog), he simply asked if we could not "plan" and "pack" like we usually do.  He said just grab a few things and go.

Funny, because that wasn't even part of my vocabulary, but I went with it.  The book I've been reading to overcome perfectionism talks about trying to take a "unplanned" vacation and see what happens.

When we got there, I certainly felt the repercussions of not being prepared. I had forgotten a slew of things including Ketchup for the hotdogs, Chocolate and Marshmallows for the s'mores, chairs that we could sit on while we ate, breakfast for the morning and whole bunch of other things.  So needless to say, it was a not so perfect camping trip.  However at that moment while we all "stood" in front of the campfire eating our plain hotdogs and buns, we all laughed and said, "definitely a trip to remember."

You know what, our "unplanned" trip ended up being a lot of fun and no, the world did not end because we had to eat hotdogs without ketchup, and graham crackers for breakfast.  It was just the 5 of us, enjoying nature and our family.  Some of the best memories I guess come from "unplanned" and not so perfect vacations.

Time gets the best of me!

My, my, time has gotten the best of me!  It's been several months since I've posted (due mostly because of the overwhelming life of a select baseball season for my 12 year old son). It seems like one moment you are sitting down, planning your summer out and the next, it's August and you're trying to figure out where your summer went.  

This weekend, my family and I are unplugging a little bit and traveling 5 hours to the Niobrara River to do some much needed R&R before the crazy school starts on Monday.  Which brings me to my point of today's blog post.

I think so many times when we get in stressful situations and we are pulled in a million ways and all you can think about is how to safely clone yourself, we tend to be overly perfectionist in our ways. Or at least I do.  I want the first day of school to go by without a hitch, I want lunches and meals and getting to sports on time to be perfectly planned out and of course on top of that, be tip top for my job and be a loving wife, all done with one single hiccup.

And the reality of all of that is that really is only in a perfect world, but realizing that is a huge step.  It's realistically not all going to get done, the kids aren't going to have all brand new school clothes before school starts, their lunches aren't going to be perfectly packed, breakfast will be served for dinner at least one time before the month ends, and yes, there's going to be hiccups and obstacles to overcome at work and in your personal life.  I think so many times I did have that vision, but I'm really starting to realize that that was an unrealistic vision.  It's ok to not have everything go as planned.

Everyday is a series of ins and outs.  Learning how to breathe through all of them is the key.