Being Flexible

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again; I'm not quick to cede control. I am flexible and rather spontaneous when I decide to change plans last minute, but I don't like it when my plans go awry because someone else puts a kink in my day. Yesterday, I received a call from the mother of Connor's friend. She wanted to know if Ezra could come over to play. On the one hand, I like Ezra, he's a great kid, and I want Connor to have a social life. On the other hand, I had a list of tasks that I felt Connor needed to accomplish. I said ok to having Ezra come over at 11a. What that meant was that Connor had to try to finish all his schoolwork in a short amount of time. He didn't finish his Chinese and had to work on it for an hour while Ezra was here. That, of course, frustrated us all. I often wonder why I don't feel I can just shelve the work and put it off until tomorrow? Lord knows the school does that all the time. In fact, the public had two snow days last week, and I'm certain the work was just put-off until the next school day. Instead, I feel as if somehow Connor will "lose" a day if a friend comes over to play. Our goal is to complete (each week) a unit in Chinese, a unit in Math, a unit vocabulary, a unit in Social Studies etc. etc. I know that we complete at least twice as much work as public-school children, yet I still hate to "waste" a day by giving Connor a snow day. He deserves days off too, I'm sure. In the end, Connor did manage to finish his work, and he got to play outside with Ezra for several hours too. It guess it's all about keeping a balance and being flexible. Easier said than done!