A Change of Field Trips: Learning to Go With the Flow

With Evan's sprained ankle we could not head off for our field trip that we had planned on Friday.

We were going to get together with some local homeschoolers and go on a tour of a radio station-- the kids would even get a chance to speak ON AIR!  But we knew with Evan not being able to put any weight on his foot that this was out of the question for us.

We planned to spend a quiet day at home with the possibility of a doctor's appointment and maybe even an orthodontist appointment since my middle son was complaining of swollen gums that were being pinched by his palette expander. 

My husband called shortly after breakfast and asked if we were going to be waiting around for appointments or not; he had a road job that was only an hour or so away and it wouldn't take him long once there so he was looking for some company.

Alec's mouth was feeling much better after using his water pick twice and sleeping on it overnight.  Most of the swelling had gone down and he felt confident that he would not have any problems before his next scheduled appointment.  

Evan was still in mild pain but had managed to slowly walk down the stairs and we figured as long as he sat in the middle seat in the back of the truck he could keep his foot elevated on the console and would be just as able to rest his foot in the car as he could at home.

The boys were excited about getting to see dad at work for a day and taking a road trip.  

We packed some workbooks, some reading books, a large bag of ice, a towel, some Motrin and our new audiobook; Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

My husband picked us up and we set on our way.  We looked out the window, played some video games, talked, and enjoyed our drive.

Ian was able to help out my husband once at the job site and the younger two boys stayed in the car.  They spread out on the backseat with Evan keeping his foot elevated and alternately watched out the window to see what was going on or read some of their books.  

Alec started reading Secrets According to Humphrey and Evan read Cheetah Cubs.    Alec also worked on a few pages in his Pokemon activity book while Evan worked on a page or two in his dot to dot book.

We stopped at a local grocery store for a bathroom break and my husband; one of those guys who always thinks outside the box and solves problems told Evan to hop onto the back of the grocery carriage. Using his good foot he could stand up and hold on to the sides of the carriage and we could push him all around without putting any weight on his foot.  

We had one more quick stop to make where my husband had another quick repair job.  This time all three boys stayed in the car and I saw the perfect opportunity to read a couple of chapters from the 39 Clues; One False Note.  

After all the work was done we went out to lunch; the boys had a great time working on ciphers, cross words, word searches and dot to dots on the menu.  

We listened to an entire CD of our new audiobook and enjoyed a really pleasant day together.  I couldn't help think that while we would have had a great time with our friends at the radio station we could never have spent this wonderful day together as a family if we had been able to go on our field trip.  

Sometimes it's good to go with the flow!  I struggle with that though I am trying to just enjoy where life takes us.  I am trying to realize that not everything is under my control and sometimes an unexpected change of plans ends up to be a good thing.  But I find it hard to let go of what I had planned and not second guess myself.  To just enjoy being in the moment and not thinking about what could have been or what might happen if I let go and just have faith.  But I am trying and this is one day I'm so happy I did.

I'm happy to report that Evan was able to walk on his foot by the end of the night Friday... when he came down with a stomach bug and altered all of our plans or the next several days.