Goal Overload?

Hola, Bucketeers! Today, I have the pleasure of featuring another great guest poster! Today, we have Amy from Non-Stop Mom! She has a great post for you, so show her some love through the comments and give her blog a visit and a follow! 

Goal Overload? 

If you have been following my blog (first of all, thank you)then you probably already know about our upcoming road trip. If you haven’tbeen (you should), then here’s a little bit of background information.

I am a 40 year old single mother of 5 kids. Yes, F-I-V-E. Mydaughters are 11 and 9, and my sons are 7, 5, and 4. We are leaving our home incentral Kansas and driving through 10 states and the District of Columbia onwhat has now been dubbed “The Mother of All Road Trips: 2011 Edition” orTMOART:2011 for semi-short. 

There are so many goals that are wrapped up into this trip –and this trip is going to be so much more than just a “road trip”.

The main goal, the main reasonfor why we are even undertaking this is so that the kids and I can see myparents. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and my parents are still there along with afew of my siblings. My parents had me later in their lives, and so they are nowin their 80s. The last time that we saw them was 2 years ago, and my youngestson does not remember that trip. Now, at 4 years old, he will remember at leastbits and pieces of it – and if, God forbid, something were to happen to myparents, he would at least have a few memories of his grandparents. My parentsare for all intents and purposes the only grandparents that he has – hispaternal grandparents are not involved in his life at all (read my blog forthat story as well).

Another goal is to see some friends – old and new. Along theway, we will be seeing friends that I haven’t seen in anywhere from never to acouple of years to 20+ years. Wait,friends I’ve never seen? Yes, you read that correctly – I will be meetingsome friends for the first time ever – friends whom I have had the pleasure ofgetting to know online but have yet to actually see face-to-face. I am soexcited to see my high school and childhood friends – some of them I have lostand found over the years, and a few have always been in my life. I will get tosee some of my family for the first time in years as well.

Sadly, I won’t get to see everyone on my wish list – somepeople have other plans, some have drifted away, some have passed away. But, Iwill be thankful for each and every person we are able to visit with on thistrip.

To me, a rather obvious goal will just be completing thetrip with my sanity intact. It’s not a big secret that my kids don’t always getalong, but they are generally good at traveling. As long as we don’t run intoany major traffic, construction, weather, or mechanical issues, we’ll be good.I hope that I only have to threaten the kids a minimal number of times to keepthem on decent behavior, especially while we are staying with friends. And withthe GPS on my phone and a large atlas, hopefully we’ll be able to find our wayaround any major obstacles and keep on moving!

There have been so many goals even leading up to this trip –getting things squared away financially was huge, but we did it. I have beentucking money away for months in order to make this happen but I did it. I havefigured and refigured the financial end of things to make sure that we havemore than enough money to do this. Granted, we’re not going to be buyingsouvenirs at every stop, and we’re not eating out along the way, but we can doit. We already stocked up on food that we’re taking with us – I have everyintention of NOT stopping at any fast food restaurant on the way out or back(with the exception of hopefully meeting my niece and her family in Columbus onthe return trip). I don’t want to have to buy anything except for an occasionalbag of ice and of course gas for the van, and some groceries at each stop.

Because I have been so stressed out about what COULD gowrong, I’ve been channeling my nervous energy and cleaning my house with theultimate goal of having my entire house clean and organized when we leave – Idon’t think that anything (other than the trip itself) could be better thancoming home to a clean house! And, with the exception of organizing my laundryroom, that goal is just about met. Yay me! I am not the neatest or mostorganized person in the world, as much as I want to be – but when I take thetime and make the effort to clean, it shows. I’ve also explained to the kidsthat not only do I expect the house to stay clean until we leave, but I alsoexpect it to stay that way after we return. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I also fully intend to get everything packed and into thevan by Wednesday afternoon so that I can sleep Wednesday night. I am a night owl,through and through. I have trouble going to sleep any earlier than 2am, and weare planning to leave by 3:00am on Thursday. With a proposed 12-hour drive thatday, I have to sleep Wednesdaynight. Of course, I just remembered that since I am volunteering at VacationBible School with our church this week, my tentative plan of being in bed by8:00pm on Wednesday isn’t going to happen – but maybe by 9:00 instead.

My life has been extremely chaotic over the past few years,to say the least. I just recently went through my second divorce, and myex-husband passed away very unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Emotionally, Ihave been through the wringer more than once. Just getting this trip plannedand seeing pieces of it falling together has done wonders for my attitude aboutlife in general. This trip is so desperately needed right now – which is just asmall part of what is making me determined to make it happen. I have had toomany people tell me that I can’t do it, or that I shouldn’t do it, or whatever– so not only am I doing it for me and the kids, but there is a small part ofme that is doing it to prove to everyone else what I already know about myself– that I can and will do it!

For more of the story, and posts as the trip happens, besure to follow my blog! I plan to post regularly throughout the trip – bothshort “progress posts” from my phone to keep everyone up to speed on our statusas we travel, and longer posts when we get to real computers throughout ourjourney!

Bon voyage!