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’t been (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. My daughters are 11 and 9, and my sons are 7, 5, and 4. We are leaving our home in central Kansas and driving through 10 states and the District of Columbia on what has now been dubbed “The Mother of All Road Trips: 2011 Edition” or TMOART: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 reason for why we are even undertaking this is so that the kids and I can see my parents. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and my parents are still there along with a few of my siblings. My parents had me later in their lives, and so they are now in their 80s. The last time that we saw them was 2 years ago, and my youngest son does not remember that trip. Now, at 4 years old, he will remember at least bits and pieces of it – and if, God forbid, something were to happen to my parents, he would at least have a few memories of his grandparents. My parents are for all intents and purposes the only grandparents that he has – his paternal grandparents are not involved in his life at all (read my blog for that story as well).

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

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

To me, a rather obvious goal will just be completing the trip with my sanity intact. It’s not a big secret that my kids don’t always get along, but they are generally good at traveling. As long as we don’t run into any 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 keep them on decent behavior, especially while we are staying with friends. And with the GPS on my phone and a large atlas, hopefully we’ll be able to find our way around 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 been tucking money away for months in order to make this happen but I did it. I have figured and refigured the financial end of things to make sure that we have more than enough money to do this. Granted, we’re not going to be buying souvenirs at every stop, and we’re not eating out along the way, but we can do it. We already stocked up on food that we’re taking with us – I have every intention 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 on the return trip). I don’t want to have to buy anything except for an occasional bag 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 go wrong, I’ve been channeling my nervous energy and cleaning my house with the ultimate goal of having my entire house clean and organized when we leave – I don’t think that anything (other than the trip itself) could be better than coming home to a clean house! And, with the exception of organizing my laundry room, that goal is just about met. Yay me! I am not the neatest or most organized person in the world, as much as I want to be – but when I take the time and make the effort to clean, it shows. I’ve also explained to the kids that not only do I expect the house to stay clean until we leave, but I also expect 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 the van 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 we are planning to leave by 3:00am on Thursday. With a proposed 12-hour drive that day, I have to sleep Wednesday night. Of course, I just remembered that since I am volunteering at Vacation Bible School with our church this week, my tentative plan of being in bed by 8:00pm 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 my ex-husband passed away very unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Emotionally, I have been through the wringer more than once. Just getting this trip planned and seeing pieces of it falling together has done wonders for my attitude about life in general. This trip is so desperately needed right now – which is just a small part of what is making me determined to make it happen. I have had too many 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 of me 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, be sure to follow my blog! I plan to post regularly throughout the trip – both short “progress posts” from my phone to keep everyone up to speed on our status as we travel, and longer posts when we get to real computers throughout our journey!

Bon voyage!