The Ideal Day vs. The Everyday
In my mind I admit that I often romanticize what I how I would like our home to look and how I would like our homelife to be:
Classical music would be playing in the background, soft light streams through the solarium windows at all times. The house would be spotless. I envision myself in an apron contentedly folding laundry as I look on at the children playing quietly together in the adjoining room.
My husband would come home and everything would be better. We'd practically dance around him, Little Women-esque upon his arrival.
All would be right with the world.
Errrrt-goes the record stopping suddenly. For that is hardly how things are.
Admittedly our home runs a lot smoother when Nick's not home. And that makes me sad. We're working on it, I'm praying about it, but it makes me sad. For some reason it just seems like everythings' more chaotic when he gets home...ugh.
I do wear an apron, but usually it's over my pajama top and some sweats I managed to throw on before attending to some disgruntled child who's mad again that I turned off their lights when they fell asleep. How rude of me, I know!
Classical music does in fact play in our house and I love it...but when Nick's home we have a constant play-by-play and replay and instant replay and called play and re-re-re play of every sport known to the Western Hemisphere thanks to ESPN and SportsCenter streaming through the house...like, oh yeah, go team -whatever-is-playing, go!
And things around here hardly ever run smoothly. Let me fill you in on our last week...
Nick jumped a curb on the freeway. I am carless worried about the money it will cost to have his fixed.
Sans car, I'm stuck in the house with two kids.
Still worried about the money.
Twice this week I needed the car which meant we had to wake our children up at 3:30 in the morning to take Daddy to work.
He got to be at work while I got to deal with the two children who had been awoken at 3:30 in the morning.
My vacuum is in the shop.
Nick told me to spend $50.00 on it...it's getting fixed but it's over $100.00!
My dishwasher is on the fritz! On the fritz meaning I can't be talk on the phone in the kitchen when it's on because you can't hear me!!!
We got a "we're not paying this you dumb people" letter from the insurance on a doctor's appointment that they said they would pay for. I'm confident it was a mistake, just nevertheless irritating.
Nick has had to work a lot of overtime. He works 14 hour days so when he works he comes home, eats dinner that he will undoubtedly criticize, and then fall asleep on the couch...a real romance going on here folks :)
Nick yesterday described to me our home as being "nothing is the way I want it"...well thanks a lot mr. snotty pants
Yesterday I was driving by a gas station and saw gas had jumped over 20 cents! From 3.77 to 3.99! I rushed to a gas station and was so excited I found it for 3.76!!! I was putting it into park at the pump when the digital board and pumps changed to 3.99! SOOOO frustrating!
This morning I went to open the foyer door and the doorknob fell apart in my hand. Again, dealing with it on my own because my husband is at work.
Yesterday I had to cancel all of our plans and skip the library sale I've been looking for because I thought the kids had lice! EeEEEEEkk!!! So the nit combing had to be done and everything we own had to be cleaned.
Okay, enough ranting. I just wanted to show you how this week has been. I feel lonely because Nick's at work. He's grumpy, understandably, but I'm lonely and it definitely makes for a rub between us. I don't usually complain too much but I wanted to show you that at times people go through valleys. Through horrible times (although I can't say this is a horrible time, just an ick week). But we press on. We turn our sights to the Lord who is leading us through it all. We're giving Him praise in it all.
Because afterall, things could always be worse. At the height of my lice-indused frustration yesterday was the word that tornadoes had demolished peoples homes in Southern Indiana. And family members. And their hopes and dreams.
Things can always be worse. Things could always be better. But right now I am in the everyday. I am going to have to choose to change my point of view and make the everyday the ideal day. For someday our home will be as quiet as a tomb. And I will miss the sticky handprints on the door frame. I'll miss the goggled kids running around with swords. I'll miss the everyday worries that helped build my faith in God.
The ideal day of the older version of me is today's everyday...
"...She always faces tomorrow with a smile"
Proverbs 31:25b
The Message
So off I go to see! As I'm hearing a play-by-play, someone apparently has been stabbed in the eye with a light saber...
Happy Saturday everyone! Smile for tomorrow :)