Expectations? Forget About It!

What I want to do versus what I end up doing is very, very different. Like when I imagine coming home and making a big yummy dinner with ingredients that I prepped the night before, when the reality is that I didn’t even do last night’s dishes, let alone prep ingredients for future use. Or when I imagine waking up on Saturday and cleaning the house from top to bottom, only to sit around leisurely without picking up a thing when the weekend finally rolls around. Failing to live up to my self-imposed expectations can be frustrating. 

I want to live in my glamorous, efficient, and productive hypothetical life, where the clock never strikes 12 and crapping rainbows and sunshine takes no extra effort. But real life is so...damn real. All of the chores/demands that come with being an adult, a parent, and a decent person can be exhausting. But I have found the perfect antidote: gratitude. 

When I fall into my, “ugh, do I have to get out of bed” demeanor, I try to remember why I’m getting up in the first place. I have a job! Someone actually pays me for my time. And that same someone actually lets me work hours before anyone else so that I can leave early enough to spend time with my son. What a deal! And the dinner that I don’t feel like making is so much better than having no food at all. And even though I REALLY don’t want to stop at the gas station, I really don’t want to stop on the side of the road either.

Dylan’s carefree smile is the ultimate reminder that I’m a lot luckier than I could ever truly know. So problems-schmoblems, hypothetic-schmetical, expectation-schmectation, ain’t no thang!