Blinders and expectations.....

This past week made me realize something that I notice in others...  The inability to see clearly when there are expectations.  Here is my recent revelation and I felt compelled to share it today.....

I seem to notice quite easily the efforts I put into things, but rarely ever give credit when credit is due when someone actually does roll up their sleeves and helps.  DH went on his little "fishing" trip and I was left at home with DD to take care of everything.  I figured that I had it all under control because I believed that I do everything already.  I learned that is not the case rather quickly.  Here is the list of things that I never really handled, but had to learn this past weekend...

1).  As good as I am at handling flood control at a home that has tendencies to flood, I had really no clue how to handle running the generator when the power went out.  I learned this past weekend.

2).  Being the animal lover that I am, I really do not handle death all that well.  The recent weekend storms managed to create 2 baby sparrow fatalities in my yard and I was surprised that having to remove dead birds was not really my job... well, until this weekend.  I handled it like a trooper.

3).  During times of late evening/early morning storms, I always had the tendency to sleep right through the storms.  Since there was 3 solid nights of storms while DH was gone, I learned rather quickly that you can't if you live in a flood zone.  In fact, I now know exactly where the sump pump is in my crawl space, how much water needs to get the pump to run, and how high the water needs to get to turn on the battery backup pump.

and....

4).  Even after all the rain, all the craziness, the extra hours at work, and my determination to have everything done before DH returns which failed miserably....  He did not complain that he ended up mowing the lawn when he returned from his relaxing vacation of beers, buddies and fishing because with my lack of sleep and inability to do it all, I managed to not get that done.  In fact, he managed to cover my exhausted self with a blanket to let me sleep where I landed on the couch after dinner.

Between the back spasms, the lack of sleep and the worrying of not being knowledgeable in everything that goes on in my home...  I am really glad that DH is back home.

I guess the lesson learned is that even though a person feels like they "do it all", they really don't.  I now have a renewed sense that teamwork does happen in my home.  All it took is for one weekend without them to find that out.  I think the days of complaining about the shortcomings of DH's inabilities of putting his socks in the hamper are nothing compared to my recent learning of my shortcomings when it came to keeping our house flood-free.  As for the removal of dead animals that were victims of torrential high wind storms.... well, I am not sure I will ever be comfortable enough to handle that, but I got over the "heebee-geebees" if I really have to handle it.  I think DH is more proficient in handling it, so he can keep that job.

I wonder if there are other ways that people can see beyond the expectations that blind them into seeing that efforts are in place.  It may not be when they want it, but the effort is there.  Is it possible that impatience is the culprit?  I know I have been impatient when it came to DH being constantly tired and messy, but learned that he does happen to do things I never even thought of in my dizziest days and never gave him credit for it.  Well, with my eyes wide open, I am beginning to see there is way more out there I need to learn and appreciate.  I think I can judge the surface that much less because of it.

Thanks for reading!  Have a great day!!!