Great Expectations

I am not one of those people who was blessed with a great deal of ambition (maybe that's a blessing?). Nor do I have a seriously kick-ass work ethic. Which is why I knew from the get-go that all I really wanted in life was to be a stay-at-home-mom. I made no secret of it - and I'm fortunate that the hubband & I are able to pull it off (although admittedly, sometimes we're cuttin' it close). What I didn't realize - or actually, what I wouldn't allow myself to admit - was that I was signing up for the single most difficult, time-consuming, burnout-causing job in existence. I'm not saying it's not rewarding ~ I *love* being home with my kids and I wouldn't trade that for the world ~ BUT did you know that there's much more to it than mommying! I KNOW! Shocked the hell out of me, too.

I thought I'd jump right into this gig with both feet and rock the heck out of it. In actuality, most days I feel like I'm kickin' ass if I'm operating at a solid 40%. Seriously. I'm lucky if I manage to do a few loads of laundry during the day. I'm pretty good about getting the day's dishes into the dishwasher and running it before I go to bed...most nights. I rarely - and I mean *rarely* wake up to floors that are toy-free and a naked kitchen counter.

My husband was raised by the Donna Reed-esque equivalent of a Polish cleaning ninja. And I know that he knows that those are hard shoes to fill. It's difficult to keep up with a house that's inhabited by 2 adults 2 kids & 2 dogs. But I also know that he truly believes that all women were born with his mother's ninja cleaning skills and he expects me to live up to the standards that were set for him long long ago. Oh, how disappointing for him that the only time our laundry is caught up is in the wake of one of my mother's visits.

For my own part, I half expected to morph into a domestic goddess who suddenly loved scrubbing baseboards and went all a-twitter over a sparkling clean sink. Yeah, that didn't happen so much.

All this to say that we've both had to adjust our expectations. I *expect* him to notice & acknowledge that stuff got done during the day. And he *expects* me to "do a little bit every day". (What he doesn't yet realize is that I have to do the same little bit every day - otherwise we'd all be naked and very very hungry.) We both recognize that I'm not perfect - I'm not trying to be perfect - I'm simply striving for our own level of household contentment. Whatever that means.

SO - follow me on the journey & I'll share fun stuff with you. Like photos of my overflowing laundry chute (maybe), anecdotes about how I threw my back out digging toys out from under the couch (probably), and the random posting about craft projects, photography, decorating and cooking (definitely).