Poor planning, part 1

Tom and I are both the kind of people who plan well. But sometimes we don't plan well enough that we include "poor planning" in our plan. Let me explain.

Today we attended the funeral of a sister from our church who had lost the battle with an aggressive form of cancer. Tom and I had planned everything out how this was going to happen with three kids, Natalie's therapy, Lukas' preschool and Tom's work:

6:50 a.m. Tom goes to work, has Lukas' church clothes with him
7:15 a.m. Cindy is dressed for a funeral and has three children dressed in play clothes in the car; drops Lukas off at preschool
8:00 a.m. Arrive at Natalie's therapy clinic, ask speech therapist to tell physical therapist that Natalie will need to leave 15 minutes early
9:00 a.m. Feed Konrad in the car at clinic (early, so he won't have to be fed during the 10 a.m. funeral), change him into church clothes
9:15 a.m. Pick Natalie up early from therapy, change her clothes, drive to funeral 45 minutes away
9:30 a.m. Tom picks up Lukas from preschool, changes Lukas' clothes in the car, drives separately to funeral, 30 minutes away
10:00 a.m. We both arrive for funeral in separate cars, join as a family and enter the building together

Piece of cake, right?

Except...

We were out of milk this morning.

One of us was going to pick up milk last night after the kids were in bed, but Tom ran to buy something we found for a screaming deal on Craig's List, then when he got home, we were talking about the events of the day and completely forgot we were out of milk. Not a drop in the house.

So when Tom got down the cold cereal for breakfast this morning, he discovered the lack of milk. No problem, I'll make eggs and toast.

Except...

We were out of bread. Yep, I've been getting a little slack on the shopping lately with three kids. I was planning to go shopping this afternoon, but it's not likely to happen before tomorrow at the rate we're going (kids are currently napping, going to an evening concert in the park tonight, etc.)

Anyway, no milk, no bread. That means oatmeal for breakfast. That takes a little more time to make (sorry, we use old fashioned oats...I guess I might have some quick oats somewhere for baking, but the thought to make quick oats for breakfast didn't occur to me).

Somehow (with God's help, for sure!), I made it to the car by 7:20 with my hair dried, myself dressed, three kids dressed, turned on the car, ready to go.

Oops, the gas tank is on empty!

But even after filling the tank, Lukas still make it to school, and Natalie made it to therapy on time, and we all made it to the funeral right as it started.

Because what we usually don't plan for is TRAFFIC, and today there was no traffic that impeded our travels, so the lack of traffic made up for my lack of planning.

Praise God!