Letting Go

I have issues. Many of them. One, is a strange one, that I don't find many people have. I am almost always on time, if not early. Strange, hugh? Even with 4 kids, I'm usually early for most things. I blame this on my dad. I remember when I was young, my dad always sitting in the car waiting for my mom on Sunday mornings before church. It drove her nuts, and she was rarely late for anything, it was just that dad liked to be early, for whatever reason. I, of course, was sitting out in the car with him.

When I am running late for something, I am nervous, tense and annoyed- I hate that feeling. Last week, the first two days of Gymnastics, we arrived about 10 minutes early. Why do I do this to myself??? I hate it. 5 or 10 minutes is a long time to chase kids, let alone Akila, around and try to keep her out of things she should not be touching. The final 3 days, we arrived right on time. One day, we were 5 minutes early, so I got gas and we were a few minutes late, which I was internally anxious about. I know, I'm weird.

I always do this, not only for gymnastics. I have to stop doing it. I just read a book last week by Liz and Jodee Kulp on FASD, and Jodee was saying that they always arrive late and leave early (she was talking about family events, but I get the point). I can't count the times we have arrived early somewhere and I end up driving around wasting gas while the kids are questioning if I'm lost. They think I get lost a lot more than I actually do.

As a matter of fact, I think that this issue of mine about being early, is the reason that I do most of the driving in our family. I have a pretty good sense of direction and know my way around the Twin Cities really well. If I go somewhere once, I almost always can get there again. Plus, I have been early to so many things, and found myself driving around to shoot the time then, and explore the area. I had a superintendent I worked for once, who told us to take a different way to the schools we travelled to each time to learn more of the community. Good advise actually, I did learn a lot.

Arrive late, leave early. This needs to be my new motto. Or at the least, arrive on time, especially when dropping Akila off for an activity which gives me and/or the rest of the family a break. It would be a mortal sin to be late for such an event. :)