When Schedules Go Haywire

     Have you ever “shot your self in the foot” when it comes to starting your school day? This happened to me this morning.

     Yesterday we borrowed a carpet cleaning machine from a friend. I intended to clean the den, dining room and living room carpets before starting school. I gave myself an hour and a half to get this done. Now, I had planned to only move the dining room table and chairs and just clean around the other furniture. I started off with no problems, I finished the den, which is not too large and has no furniture, just a school table. I dragged the machine to the dining room. We moved  the table and I began to get to work. About half way through, I needed to change the water again and as I was putting the water back on, I noticed the little dial. The dial that said: Heavy traffic, normal clean, light clean, and water rinse. Can you guess what the dial was set on? Of course, water rinse. I had not been cleaning the carpets at all, I had only been rinsing them with water. I had been impressed at how long the shampoo had lasted, only to find out I had not been using any. So back to work, re-cleaning the carpets that I had already cleaned, this time using the carpet shampoo. It was amazing how many more stains came up with shampoo than without.

     Well, needless to say we did not start school on time. But we have rallied. Not following our schedule is hardest on Rebekah and on me. Ben and Sarah are “go with the flow” kids, but Rebekah loves her schedule. I just look at a day like today and tell Rebekah this is good practice for life. In life, there are times you just have to learn to adapt and do things in a little different way without falling.apart. So today was our, teach Rebekah how to adapt day. She did okay, but Sarah and I still had to prod and guide her every step of the way. Ending with a science video, which is very out of the ordinary for us, was a good way to end the strange, no schedule school day.