Plans, plans, plans

When mom was in the hospital in November, and my cousin was here {two separate events that just happened to be at the same time, which turned out to be good timing, all things considered}, I reconnected with a few folks from my mom's side of the family that I'd not seen since I was but a wee child, some forty years ago.  Most of the connections occurred via FaceBook, which was still relatively new for me {*gasp*, "new"?!?  yes, yes, imagine, someone being late to the facebook party}.  Even tho I knew that mom's mom's family had a yearly reunion, I don't remember having gone, tho mom told me that she took me when I was young{er} and encouraged me to attend again.  My cousin who was visiting and I got to talking and decided that it would be great if some one from each of mom's mom's kids represented at this summer's gathering.  So word spread quickly amongst the other cousins and wah~LAH, Grandma Evert's five children will each have some of their children and their children's children present at this year's family reunion in PA.

Now, keep in mind that my husband's five children and their families were already set to return home in July to celebrate Jerry's 60th and his mom's 80th birthdays, plus my husband's retirement.  My maternal grandmother's family reunion takes place the following weekend in PA.  So we decided that we wanted to get the teardrop prior to the trip from Mississippi to Pennsylvania.  All that was planned in December 2014, set in motion in February, and now here we are, getting it all done according to schedule.

Along the way tho, there were lots of other things that came up; including transferring Jerry's mom from the personal care home to a nursing home, and all the stuff that goes with that.  This past year, we rerouted money that would have been going into our retirement plans into immediate care for his mom.  It reaffirmed for us that long range financial planning is a good thing, so that our own care when we require it will be already taken into account and we won't need to rely on our children or the state to provide for us in those ways, leading to a cycle of being unprepared and unable to catch up {we want to be sure to do what we can to get ahead of that NOW for THEN}.

Also, there were various circumstances that cropped up, crises to calm, fires to put out, waters to calm, mountains to restore to molehills, and life to manage.  We've become more adept with how we handle these things, keeping our priorities straight, and doing what we can, when we can, how we'd like.  Most times, this works well and we're good with things; sometimes, compromise comes into play.  And then there are those times when we look back on something and think, "wow, I did NOT handle that well at all."

Fortunately, those times are fewer and fewer, as we get older and older.  Foresight is great, especially if it's accurate.  Hindsight is perfect, especially if you can learn from your mistakes.  Seeing what's right before you, happening right now, is best of all~~cuz that's really all you have for certain.