April 22, 2014: Good Planning?

The flowers of April

I have always gloated on the fact that I have three sons with April birthdays. When proudly slipping this fact into conversation, I wait for the bite. The question I want to be asked.

"All three in April? Really??" is the desired response.

My standard line back..."Yes, I call that good tax planning."

The tax planning I refer to is the 4/15 tax deadline that has loomed on my annual calendar for the last twenty-two years. My long-standing occupation was public accounting.

After a pause, my next scripted comment was to explain how Grant defied tax planning logic with a 4/14 birthday. Zach and Ben, on the other hand, were nicely aligned with 4/30 and 4/29 milestones. Both born on their due dates. The first by chance and the second with some medical assistance.

As a forever planner, I was originally smitten with the news of a 4/27 due date with baby #3. I had visions of group birthday parties and future adult celebrations with exotic destinations for the trio of back-to-back birthdays. What better way to finish tax season and enjoy life, was my rationale. A perfect plan.

I soon learned that I can't plan everything. In the case of Grant, I couldn't plan my obstetrician's vacation schedule.

At my eight month office visit, my OB announced that he was leaving for a three week vacation to Jamaica, starting 4/15. My birthing choices were to be delivered by another physician, wait until he got back, or get induced on 4/14. I chose #3. As other moms of equal mind can attest, there clearly was no other choice out of the options presented.

So Grant is a 4/14 b-day. And for twelve tax seasons, I juggled my tax d-day with glorifying my child's special b-day. In retrospect, it was not good planning on my part. Additionally, I didn't consider the Easter Sunday factor. Many years I was simultaneously ordering a specially designed birthday cake and sending invites to toddler moms while planning Easter baskets; all while working 60 hour a week to make the tax deadline.

As for my 4/29 and 4/30 boys, I would tell you they would have preferred to have birthdays more spread apart. Saying yes to back-to-back over-nighters with gobs of hyper boys was enough to drive us to the loony bin.

But we did it, year after year, and we had fun. Not for the faint of heart.

Now we have hit the magical year of 2014 and I am challenging both my birth date planning as well as choice of birth years. As a bit of foreshadowing, there is a reason I haven't been blogging lately. The juggling of the calendar has reached the point of exhaustion. I am now asking myself, what was I thinking?

In a six week time period, we will have had Grant's golden 14th birthday, Ben's 18th b-day, Zach's big 21, Easter, Confirmation, 8th grade graduation, and Ben's high school graduation. We will conclude the festivities with a trip to Mexico in late May with Zach immediately packing up once we touch US ground again. He moves to Denver in early June to begin gunsmithing school and a new leg in his life journey.

<breathe>

Time to interject some perspective.

It is April. Birthday month at the Lane house. A lovely month and actually, a great month to have babies. The tulips show their beautiful color with fragrant trees blooming. Spring is all around us.

With every passing spring day, I am reminded of my soft, tiny newborns. Rocking them by a cracked window while enjoy the quiet reminders of nature's gifts. This is my memory of Aprils past. And that is what I call good planning. A memory and a moment stamped in time.

With all of the continued chaos of the April and May calendars, I will be sure to slow down and enjoy the tulips. A good month indeed.