Thanks, JDaniel4’s Mom for having me. I never pass a silicon muffin tin at Bed Bath & Beyond without thinking of you. Ever.

I’m always thinking months in advance. I have no idea why I do this, because life has taught me over and over again that my plans do not matter. Someone else is flying this plane, and He’s got a much better view of the future than I do.

This spring I was determined to find a teaching job for next year. Not just any job though, I wanted my job back. The job I left in Texas, at the school I attended as a child. The job where all my friends still worked. The job that was the last one I held that made me happy.

It was all set. There was a math opening and the principal would even interview me via Skype since I was so far away. I began decorating my classroom in my head. I started panicking about childcare, schedules, the possibility of living apart from my husband for awhile.

Everything else in my life faded to a dull roar, a blur in the background. All I could think about was getting out of this city, getting away from bad memories, getting home to my family and friends.

And then I woke up one morning and opened an email that changed it all. As I read the words, “filled in-district,” I could hear brakes screaming in my head as all my plans ground to a halt.

Oh, how I moped. I was the mopiest mope you ever saw. And in the midst of my moping marathon, as I sat on the couch in the same yoga pants and t-shirt I’d worn the day before, my son climbed up in my lap with his nursery rhyme book.

“Read,” he demanded. So read we did, about the weasel that goes pop and the Sprats with their different dietary needs and that guy who is freaking out because he can’t find the Muffin Man.

Then we had cookies and lemonade and we sat on the porch and watched cars drive by, identifying them by their color and getting way too excited when a motorcycle would roar past.

I realized that the more I tried to make things happen, the more I had missed out on what was really happening.

I’m blessed to get to be a stay-at-home mom, especially in this economy. I’m lucky to live in a city that offers so much for its residents to enjoy – one of the biggest reasons we had for moving here in the first place.

And even though I no longer have family in this area, I’ve been blessed over and over again with beautiful friendships, both online and in real life here in Kansas City.

Today I turn 33. I’m not where I thought I’d be, but thanks to one small, sticky-fingered blonde boy, I know how wonderful it is to be where I am.