Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

Thanksgiving Week is here in the United States. Yay! This week brings a bit more relaxing to our schedule as my children are out of school the entire week.

Having been cleaning on and off for the past few weeks, I have made lots of progress though I am not finished. In preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday, I choose to start with a plan.

Last year, I shared my overview which worked well. This year, I am still cleaning, so I have a more detailed plan to get me from here to there:

Monday

• Pickup the downstairs
• Quick clean the downstairs half bathroom
• Enjoy my children being home
• Write a couple blog posts

Tuesday

• Finish any last minute shopping
• Start brining our turkey (Paul prepares the brine. :D)
• Clean master bathroom and bedroom
• Enjoy my children being home
• Write a blog post or two

Wednesday

• Bake pies and cake
• Work on laundry
• Clean my children’s rooms
• Write a blog post

Thursday

• Happy Thanksgiving!
• Bake the turkey and fixings
• Host Thanksgiving at our home with family and friends
• Take Back my Kitchen
• Watch football
• Enjoy the day with friends
• Watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with my children

Friday

• Host a play date with out-of-town guests
• Pack up Thanksgiving items
• Start decorating for Christmas
• Watch football
• Enjoy the day with my family
• Write a blog post

Saturday

• More Christmas decorating
• Finish any cleaning
• Watch football
• Enjoy our family
• Write a blog post

Our Thanksgiving Week is underway. Though I may not get everything marked off my list, I have a plan from which to start each day. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week, then I wish you a blessed week of thankfulness and gratitude among the cleaning, preparing, and scheduling. Keep using time wisely as you celebrate this week!

Question: What tasks are you hoping to cross off your list this week?

Photograph Credit: Microsoft Images

If you saw my planned schedule for this week and then saw what actually occurred, you would think that I had mistakenly given you another week’s plan.

This is because this week has not gone as planned since I have been adjusting moment by moment. Some weeks proceed on schedule while other weeks seem to get derailed from the start.

When the plan gets bumped, I adjust and try to strategize again. Sometimes it works, and other times, I just embrace the time I have and accomplish what I can.

Even with the unexpected e-mails, phone calls, and visits, I was able to accomplish the following this week:

• Attended family night at Chick-fil-A with friends while we enjoyed the puppet show
• Completed laundry with a clean kitchen sink to boot
• Played a game with Mr. 8
• Picked up a FREE roll of paper towels
• Spent time with Miss 6 baking cookies
• Received both our federal and state refund checks after filing less than 2 weeks ago with TaxACT
• Allowed my children to play hookie
• Read books with Miss 4
• Stocked up on new shoes for our family
• Picked up 2 more key tags from Wendy’s for a FREE Jr. Frosty with any purchase through August 2014
• Replaced our Blue Rhino propane tank in preparation for grilling season
• Surprised Mr. 8 and Miss 6 with Wendy’s fries and a Jr. Frosty at school
• Worked on spring cleaning our downstairs

Though I did not get many items crossed off my to do list, I did get much accomplished. Sometimes in adjusting moment by moment, I get more done than trying to fit my schedule into the confines of that day.

In looking back, I did get much accomplished this week even though it was not what I had originally planned. If your plan gets derailed, then relax and see what you can get done.

Sometime life is more like a chess game. Though you have a plan, your opponent makes a move that you did not see coming. Instead of giving up, you adjust, rethink your move, and then forge ahead.

In using time wisely, plans will fail, but you may get more done and develop deeper relationships by adjusting moment by moment. Happy adjusting!

Question: How do you cope when your planned schedule does not work?