That (hilariously) awful trip to the garden center

Dear friend,

My husband Brooks likes to say “Better take your umbrella, otherwise it will rain.” And that later morphed into “Better take the diaper bag, otherwise they’ll poop.”

Well what I wanted for Mother’s Day was a couple of small lilacs to plant in a certain spot and eventually grow into big, beautiful lilacs. All six of us piled into the car. Which is really like piling into a clown circus car, long-limbed teenagers contorting themselves through the trunk to reach the back seats of our Subaru Ascent (while reminding me that I should have gotten a mini-van; but what can I say, I’m stubborn and I like Subaru’s).

We took a quick trip around the corner to the local garden center. No diaper bag, no problem. But also no lilacs! They were out.

So a week later it was Brooks’ birthday and he said, “What I really want to do is go get lilacs for my wife.” Aw.

This time just four of us piled into the car. We were kinda rushing during that short window between afternoon naps and time to get the birthday dinner on the grill. Looking back, I can clearly see Ellie pausing to squat on the way to the car, but in the moment we just hustled everyone along.

And set off for the further-away garden center which we were sure would have a better selection. The purplest, prettiest, loveliest-smelling lilacs!

Pretty far along the way, Ellie started fussing. Brooks said, “I think she might have pooped.” Oh, geez. Well, we were almost there.

Then she started really fussing. Now I was trying to calm down a sad rear-facing baby from the front seat, and flashing back on how she used to get sick in the car from time to time (but that was months ago, so we’re ok, right?). But we were really almost there.

We pulled into the garden center and wished hard we had brought a diaper bag with, you know, diapers and changes of clothes….but you know, we didn’t. I opened the middle console where we are supposed to always under all circumstances keep a pack of baby wipes, and it wasn’t there.

Then I rushed around the car to get Ellie. Oh, mama, it was bad.

We did have a couple baby blankets in the car left from our fairly recent winter, and I used those to soak up the mess as much as possible. Stripped off the no-longer-attractive birthday-celebration dress and pants and got her down to a damp t-shirt. Brooks somehow managed to detail the car seat pretty well. (And yes, of course she had also pooped.)

Ellie cheered up right away, because who doesn’t enjoy a garden center on a beautiful May day? Especially one with nice mud puddles running down the middle of every path? (Yep.)

Well, we picked out a couple lilacs, and I am very happy with them! And we got our stinky, messy family out of there.

We drove home with the windows cracked, and enjoyed the fresh air, along with the sounds of a two-year-old not getting her way (Leta wanted the windows clooooooosed!).

I think a tiny bit of planning would have saved us an awful mess, don’t you? I don’t remember all the times I’ve planned ahead and had what we needed in the messy moment but I sure will remember this time when I wasn’t prepared!

Planning can help you homeschool without becoming a frazzled mess as well. When you have a plan you don’t need to rely on late-night panic-planning or flying by the seat of your pants.

I would love to help you put that plan together in the least stressful, most peaceful way possible!

You’re invited to join me for the Peaceful Planning Retreat on June 5th.

The retreat is a live online workshop (but you can watch the recording on your own time if you can’t make it that day). It includes a lovely and super helpful Peaceful Planning Workbook.

I can’t wait to see you there!

xo

Kelly

P.S. The lilacs are lovely, and so was the birthday dinner! Ellie was asleep by the time we brought out the ice cream cake. ;)