Ideally and Making Do

Ideally, I planned on having four kids.  Then, I had three. 

Ideally, I imagined homeschooling would be painting, picnics, and pleasantries.  Then, the kids stopped listening to the teacher. Ahem.

Ideally, I imagined myself in bright colored dresses, upswept wavy hair, and dancing around on tip-toes making messes magically disappear.  Then, I overslept.

I'm the notorious daydreamer- thinking up great big ideas, passionately sharing them, and then losing track or steam along the way.  I dream of greener pastures and changing the world.  I like to overlook the ugly stuff and walk barefoot in the backyard carelessly.  I know there are spiders and snakes, but I try to forget.

Ideally, my dreams would come true.  I would complete my ongoing bachelor's degree, but the classes I already flourished through will just make do. I imagine my days are filled with endless hours of watching my kids play, working on crafts, and writing in a picture perfect space.  Then, I found that a few precious minutes of child observation, a couple of projects completed here and there, and a morning writing thoughts in my journal will just have to be enough.

There's nothing wrong with making do.  It's how we pace ourselves.  How we survive.
There's nothing wrong with thoughts of grandeur either.  If there weren't a brave few souls in the world who looked over the impossibilities that are so obvious to the rest, we may be opposed to trying new things. Trying new ideas.  Attempting a new approach.

There's value in both. 

And aspiring to ideals of raising well-mannered and productive children, developing good character in ourselves, and making the world a better place are not things we should give up on.  We may not reach all of our goals, but we will probably be better off for at least trying- and so would the rest of the planet.

Ideally, I could sit here for a day and think lots of "thinks," but these thirty minutes will just have to do. 

The baby's crying, the dishes won't put themselves away, and there's still more school to do.

But the sun is shining, and I have returned to my blog.  I'd say it's a pretty ideal kind of day...even with all of the making do :-)