I was patting myself on the back when we left for our field trip on Friday. For as old as I am, you would think I would know enough to at least be cautious when I pat myself on the back. 😉

You see this crock pot full of yummy stew? It’s filled with chunks of tender beef and loaded with yummy vegetables like potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, and tomatoes.

I put this meal together before we left because I knew I’d be too tired to cook even a simple meal after a whole day out. I actually thought about the stew several times throughout the day and was almost anxious to get the field trip over with to get home to what is one of my favorite meals. I didn’t smell it cooking when we all trooped exhausted through the door around 4:30 Friday afternoon. Somewhere in my mind I thought that was a bit odd but I didn’t go upstairs right away.

Kenny went up. He’d been thinking about that stew, too, and he wanted a bite. 🙂

He got a spoon, opened it up and dug in. And, it was cold.

You’re thinking I didn’t plug it in, right? Nope. I plugged it in. Maybe the crock pot died? It is ancient and I’ve been meaning to replace it. But that’s not it, either.

Safety plugs killed my stew.

The little red button wasn’t pushed in.

I think I’m growing as a person, though. There was a time that this situation would have really upset me. Don’t get me wrong. I was very frustrated. But in years past I may have even cried over the lost time, the lost food, the lost money. The lost money would have upset me the most because in years past things have been very tight. While we’re not where we want to be financially by any means we are definitely doing better. I owe a lot of it to good old Dave Ramsey. Thanks to his way of thinking we had money set aside to cover dinner.

We all hopped back in the van and headed to Wendy’s. Not the healthiest option but sometimes it’s OK. The picky kids who were not salivating all day thinking about the stew were thrilled. And for us old folks and the one kid who loves to eat, I made stew again the next day. I was going to share my recipe but even after all the whoopla the stew only received respectable marks. In the words of young, unmarried and completely honest Wesley, “It wasn’t the best stew I’ve ever had but it was all right.”

So I should probably end this post with some very sage advice about what to do when things don’t go according to plan. Honestly, I’m not yet qualified. I’m very much a type A personality and even a bit controlling. God is still working on me. The key, I think, is to let Him. I really did tell myself that it was OK that dinner didn’t turn out. We had a great day and I didn’t want to let such a little thing ruin it. I also had to tell myself that it was OK to spend the money going out to dinner even though we have financial goals we’re trying to meet. Sometimes it’s worth the sanity. 🙂