We had the busiest weekend! And as badly as we would LOVE to do more home renovation, sometimes you are just forced to hang up the hammer, lay down the paint brushes and live your regular, CRAZY life! We had to leave the “Dirty Diamond” to go support our daughters’ soccer game (they both play on the same team, The Rowdies).

Then I was off to a Baby Shower-where I was a hostess, only to return for a brief 45 minutes where we were to head back out to a gathering with our church family. Oh and on top of that, my sweet, little daughter also turned 8 years old and her birthday plans  got kind of shot down :>( However, we made it up to her by celebrating a day early with a shopping spree to an outdoor mall and dinner at her favorite restaurant.  All of this said to talk about “EXPECTATIONS.

I think I can safely say that HOME IMPROVEMENT shows can really mess with your head and create GREAT EXPECTATIONS! You begin to believe that you really can install a kitchen in 30 minutes! Or that a bathroom makeover is as easy as 1-2-3! WRONG!!! And as much as I love my husband and know he is perfectly capable of EVERYTHING he tells me he can do…I have learned that when he says “OH! THAT is easy! It won’t take me very long to do ‘such and such a thing,” my EXPECTATIONS should probably adjust and I need to tack on a week to whatever time frame I’ve been given. It takes pressure off of my husband and it helps me to be more patient.

EXPECTATIONS can be a DANGEROUS thing.  You EXPECT certain tasks or behavior to take place and when it doesn’t happen the way you EXPECT,  it can be discouraging and slow down your momentum. So, when I got home from the Baby Shower this past Saturday I EXPECTED my counter tops to be fully installed, kitchen sink in place, and oven/stove-top sitting in its proper place instead of in my living room.  Instead, I got home and found my husband and his dad looking like they were just getting started.  —SIGH—-  I learned from our last house that cutting edges and corners can be time consuming, so my EXPECTATIONS were a bit dashed but I got over it.

The guys struggled a bit with getting their corners to match up and this is where my contribution came into play.  After our busy, busy day, after in-laws had left, children were bathed and in bed, I was asked to stand on the counter to apply my weight so that Jonathan could bolt the cabinets together. It worked and now we have some pretty counter tops! We were beat but we felt like we needed to do something to check something off of our “TO DO” list and to try to fulfill at least one of my EXPECTATION S for the day. :>)