The rain has driven us inside once again. I’m busy making all sorts of summer canning plans. Of course I’m planning way more than is actually possible. Maybe I should instead call it summer canning “dreams.” I’ve learned to keep my canning plans, and meal plans for that matter, in a secret notebook. I have to keep it especially secret from Knut and Silje. Both of them love to read my cooking plans and they get so excited. But then we end up home late one afternoon, and I don’t have time to make a certain dish. Perhaps the girls refused to nap or I backed out of an expensive ingredient at the grocery store, or plain forgot to get it. I just can’t stand the disappointed look they give me if they see that I had “carmel rolls” written out for a breakfast and they wake up to toast because I just didn’t get to it. “A plan is not a promise” is not just something I have to explain to the kids.
There’s a million reason my meal plans fall through, and projects don’t get done. I’ve learned to make the grand plans anyway, because then at least some of them happen, and some are better than none. So I’m in big, secret dream mode now.
I’m anticipating the garden treasure like crazy now. I see those strawberries beginning to form. I saw the rapid growth the tomato plants had this week. I’ve now tasted the asparagus, and lily of the valley is not perfuming the whole house with it’s fragrance. (Just to be clear, lily of the valley isn’t edible.) I feel like a kid before Christmas. Oh the things we will make with the cucumbers and the pumpkins, and the black beans, and the green beans, and the beets and carrots, and the…
It’s going to be fantastic. At least anticipation and the stuff we get to will be fantastic.
elizabeth says
June 3, 2014 at 12:36 pmyes, I think it is good to keep some plans, like cooking and canning, a bit tight to the chest as it were so that there is not a confusion of plan/promise. I always remember the phrase ‘she did not plan to fail but failed to plan’ … i.e. I think you are right, better to dream big and plan things than to not plan and thus have nothing. 🙂
Schlef Family says
June 3, 2014 at 3:43 pmWriting these plans down in a secret place is a great idea. Thanks for the tip!
Mom says
June 3, 2014 at 3:58 pmIt cracks me up how Ingrid just has to be one of the “big” kids. She’s not going to let any grass grow under her feet! 🙂
Dreaming and planning is so good for the soul, and you’re right. The more that is planned, the more that is accomplished.