Breathe Deep and Plan On.

A child hanging out laundry. A freezer full of prepared meals. Organized and color-coded school books. A written agenda for the day. Running gear ready to go. What do these things all have in common?

They require a plan and much preparation to come to fruition. Teaching a child to handle laundry does NOT happen overnight. It takes time and patience and training and guidance and about 78,000 reminders. His future wife will thank me, I think.

The meals in the freezer...many ideas, recipes, calculations, shopping, a couple of days of cooking, and much tweaking are necessary to pull this off. It is the planning of these meals that makes most people shy away from the task.

Organization in the school room? Well, I must admit that I am partial to this one. Anything involved organization and color-coding are right up my alley. And, if there is a label-maker involved? Well, I am more excited than a kid in a candy shop with unlimited funds. But, in all seriousness, there is a lot of planning involved just to get to this point with 5 very different children. Trust me.

And finally, that running gear. It is so much more than the picture can even represent. It tells a story of days of running when I have not felt like it one bit. I just want to nestle down in my covers and get some extra sleep. I don't want to get up early and get going. But, the plan requires it.

In a conversation I had today with one of my older girls, I reminded her that her work would show when the time comes. How much effort and time she has put into a particular subject would be obvious in time. And, it's the same way with running. The amount of time and effort I have put into the training will show up on marathon day.

And speaking of the marathon, it is looming large on our horizon. We both feel under-prepared, and so, we are in need of a plan that will help us get past that. We have found one from Runner's World and are trying to make sure that we are getting in long runs of the appropriate length to get us to the marathon in good shape.

Please pray for us as we continue this journey that is seriously depressing at times. It is frustrating and hard. We don't want to do it. But, we know that He who called us to this will accomplish this with His great power. We just have to be obedient!