Well, today did not go according to plan. Normally on Saturdays I wake up around 6:30 to get my youngest son up, and then we both get the older one up a few minutes later. But today, I was thrust into action earlier as the younger one was crying in his bed. I went and got him, and he was sneezing and a little warm—pretty obvious that he was sick. Both the boys curled up with me in my chair and we watched some TV, but by the time my wife joined us, Joseph was getting fussier and sicker.
I was still able to do my morning routine (weigh-in, stretches, breakfast, etc.), but we were scheduled to go to a birthday party as a family and that plan was interrupted as my wife and I took turns holding Joseph while he fell asleep off and on. Jillian still took Brooks to the party, and Joseph got to have a movie day while he rested on the couch before he fell asleep on me and I put him to bed. His normal two-hour nap lasted twenty minutes, and that’s being generous, because he was going back and forth between sleeping and crying during that time. I worked on things here in the moments I could, but the diet went out the window, the idea of going to the party and walking around the playground playing with the kids didn’t happen—really, just nothing went according to plan.
And there is nothing wrong with that. In the past, I have been a perfectionist, and a day like today would have ruined any progress I had made. But I realize that this project is not my life—it’s my creative work. My life is my family: my wife and my boys. Today my son needed a day where he could watch cartoons and sleep on me. He just needed me there with him. That meant I could work when I could, but it wasn’t the priority.
My afternoon still went according to plan. I got to go set up chairs at church and go to the college basketball game with a friend (and thankfully we won, because I was hoping that was part of the plan too). I came home and helped get the kids to bed, did some chores, and watched some TV with my wife while working on things here like I wanted to. I even achieved the goals I had for this project today, so in the end it really all worked out.
And the best part is that, while it wasn’t perfect, I didn’t quit. I was there for Joseph, I was there for my responsibilities to the church, and I was there for myself by going to the game and having a good time. And while things didn’t go according to plan, they still worked out, and this project will still be alive when I wake up tomorrow morning. Of course, what time I wake up will be determined by how Joseph sleeps tonight—and that was also not part of the plan.
The Young Napoleon Project 