I'm a planner

By nature, I'm a planner. I love lists. LOVE them. Borders on obsession occasionally.

One of my most successful jobs was when I was a wedding planner.

I belong to my local PTO and they adore my efforts because I am a PLANNER. Plans. Planning. Plan-diddy-plan-plan.

I have a budget. It used to go out for 2 years and included things like merit increases and changes in health care (both of which were always whatever would negatively affect me the most i.e. higher health care costs, no merit increase etc.) but I've whittled it down to just a year ahead.

I have yearly financial goals because I should have been in accounting instead of HR but I'm excellent with people.

I make grocery lists and meal plans and follow them pretty strictly.

I have a plan for retirement and I evaluate it and update it regularly.

Prepping (as I have discovered that it is called) is just another plan for me. And I love it. And it can feel overwhelming sometimes but so can planning Muffins with Mom or 20 years of not working.

Ask me about how many hours I spent planning our trip to Mexico for my 30th birthday sometime. It's embarrassing.

My husband is not. He likes to throw stuff in the cart. He likes to wing it. He trusts that everything will work out.

Obviously his life is much less stressful than mine.

We are a fantastic complement to each other. He reminds me to take things easy, slow down, and that not everything needs to be planned. I make sure there is food in the house aside from cereal and cookies.

I'm working on making my backyard (and eventually the front yard) work a little better for me.

The plan is to have green grass in the middle. I know, I know, wasteful, pointless, etc. Whatever. I have kids and dogs and live in suburbia. Plus having the un-blocked space heats the kitchen to incredibly warm degrees regardless of the weather.

It's the sides that are causing us some issues.

I want to line the side of the backyard with trees. Right now we have some lilacs and various bushes that serve no real purpose. I want to plant two apple trees this year, rip out some shrubs and plant some raspberry bushes. I would also love to add two cherry trees next year and perhaps a strawberry raised bed.

My husband, not so much. He doesn't want the trees. They'll make more work for us with their leaves and stuff falling onto the ground. He doesn't want to attract bugs. His mothers back yard is very reminiscence of an English Garden/Secret Garden and he hates it.

Additionally, we don't plan to live here forever. We would like to move to a house in a few years that better meets our needs and the needs of our family and our current house isn't it. So why put in tall the time and effort into a place that I wont live at in 5 or so years?

*sigh*

That's one of my biggest issues with the planning. I'm planning for a what if. A most likely but unknown time frame. The what if ranges from total societal breakdown to high fuel costs limiting food availability. So do I plan now and if so, how far out do I plan.

I need a drink.