It is fun to have fun but you have to know how!*

"We can have lots of good fun that is funny!"

Our family is preparing for a 1900 mile road trip starting tomorrow, so I carefully planned last week to minimize last minute stress and late nights before traveling.

There are just some things you can't plan for.

I thought I had accounted for the tire issue in our van.  Every few weeks, the tire pressure light pops up on the dashboard, and I stop and fill up two of the tires a bit.  I really didn't think this was a big deal, and decided I didn't need to have them looked at.

You can't plan for ignorance.

On Friday, The Bard took the van to work so he could surprise me by fixing the tires, and getting me a really nifty cord that allows me to play my iPhone through the car speakers (can you say free audio books from Homeschool Radio Shows?).  Turned out there was a nail in one of the tires, and a loose sensor in the other.  Oops!  It also turns out that it is dangerous to drive with low-air tires.  Double oops!

Lesson learned, right?  From now on I will be right on top of low-pressure tires, yes indeed!

Lesson not finished.  Saturday morning when I drove to the Post Office, the low-pressure indicator was on again.  I stopped and measured the pressure.  Same two tires.  Errrg!

This means that today, the day I am supposed to be putting last minute touches on packing, we have to get the tires looked at again.  

"But that is not all, oh no that is not all."

Little Warrior started coughing last week.  A cough here, a cough there.  No fever.  No runny nose.

"Look at me! Look at me! Look at me now!"

Normally I wouldn't think twice about something like this; I'd just let it run its course with vitamins and rest.  But we are driving to visit my father-in-law, who will have just finished 8 weeks of chemotherapy.  So I watched him carefully.

A little runny nose.  Then a little more.  And a lot more cough.  By Friday his pack-a-day cough had me on the phone to the nurse.  My father-in-law's immune system and the particles spraying from our four year old's mouth could never be allowed to meet.  We decided to wait until Monday to see if it would resolve.  Sunday, the cough was bad enough that I kept him home from church so we wouldn't have to condemn the nursery and Sunday School room.

You can't plan for illness.

Today, the carefully-planned-relaxing-day-before-the-massive-road-trip, will also include a 2 hour round trip to see Little Warrior's doctor.  Not counting the actual appointment.

Should I bother mentioning that I burned my hand and my leg (!) in two separate altercations with the oven this weekend?  Or that I jammed my right pointer finger so badly I couldn't use it for typing yesterday? Or that Little Warrior fell asleep in his car seat just after telling me he really needed to go to the bathroom?

Sometimes it gets to the point where the insanity reaches critical mass and I just start laughing.  Admittedly, there might be a tinge of mania in there.  Still.

A cheerful heart is good medicine and all that!

Now, with the clock ticking, we forge into the adventure of today, praying that God will make a path to an early bed time!

"That was what the [mom] said... then [s]he fell on her head!"

* with apologies to Dr. Seuss

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