Back

The Art of Flexible Planning: How to Navigate Life's Unexpected Twists | Day 283 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·Oct 12, 2023· 3 minutes

Plan with a pencil, always!

It is a good thing we are flying high on energy and that we are used to troubleshooting and changing our plans.

The boxes planned to be sent to Denmark were to be delivered on a specific date, but that date was changed less than 24 hours before, pushed back into our dental appointments in Barcelona and the day we were saying goodbye to the grandparents. 



Logistics is always a funny one to figure out: seats in the van, timing with the dentist and airplane, timing with who gets hungry when, and can the dogs be accepted in the taxi - all that stuff when we move the big group take up a lot of our planning hours.

I remember about 12 years ago when a friend pointed it out: We are mostly calm when sh** happens. She watched our family of 6 +1 dog when we could not start our car at 11 pm mid-winter trying to go home after visiting her in the countryside. Kids small, infant, 3, 6, 10 - something like that. It was no big deal, really - you can only control what you can control, and after that, it is just troubleshooting mode. And sometimes chaos control.

Panic will not help.

Falling out with each other will not help.

Just a quick analysis: What is urgent? What pieces do not move? How do we get to peace again fast?

So, on this day, Jesper picked up his parents, then the boxes, and drove to the drop-off, then to the big BCN parking, then via taxi to a lovely cafe to drop off the parents before running to the dentist. Meanwhile, the kids and I took the morning train to BCN, standing all the way, enjoying the fantastic view of the Mediterranean. And walked to the dentist.

At 11.25, we were all done with that, met with the grandparents, had ice cream, visited Ravid, the hardpan artist, walked to the restaurant - unfortunately, both grandparents were robbed in the street on the way - and had a good long debriefing of that, and a nice lunch, before we drove them to the airport, and from there to the house we have rented to have space to get everything ready for the trip to Mexico.

All boxes ticked.

All good.

With love

Cecilie-Underskrift-300x133

Cecilie Conrad

Thank you for reading
I would love to hear from you. Listen to your thoughts and reflections - or praise :) It is often emotional to share our lives like this, and we get very happy when we get your feedback. So feel free to share a comment below 😋 

More images on Facebook

Sep 26, 2022
Are you happy?
Sharing our take on happiness, finding the good life balances, the ways we balance an ever-changing life, and the story of how we attended a great fe…Read more
How we did not travel to England and what happened instead. One of the hidden perks of being a full-time traveling family is that we learn to sharpen…Read more
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” This is such a powerful truth. I remember being so afraid of the bus, afraid of leaving m…Read more
Flip Flop Long Kick contest in Romagny, France Wait … what. A flip-flop long kick contest? It sounds weird but is super fun. Read more
Unschooling is just a fancy word for living, said a meme I saw on social media this week. It is true. Another, longer, a post I read was about how am…Read more
Just a short reflection on the importance of mindset Read more
An ode to life, sharing just how great it feels to be a traveling, unschooling, free and wild woman of 47, with four amazing children and an amazing …Read more
Do you have any friends? This is one of the all times most asked questions we get as a full-time traveling family. In this text, we share the answers…Read more
Sometimes I “download” something. A clear message. Sometimes it is more powerful and clear than others. Often I ask for it, rarely does it make its o…Read more