Who’s Cleaning the Kitchen?

I walk into the kitchen after my husband says after dinner, "Go sit, I will clean up."

All I see is a mess. Covers to pots still unwashed. Glasses of 1/2 drunk milk left on the table.

Generally I would say something negative like, "Who is cleaning up???" With a nice dose of sarcasm.

But in the past year, I have done a lot of soul searching and that journey has made me truly realize that he doesn't see what I see. He can't. He is not me. His idea of clean and mine are completely and utterly different. Our perspective is not the same.

After taking the Picture Winter workshop from http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/ I realized that this is true of most things. The daily prompt/inspirations conjured up different images from everyone. I would always get excited when someone took a similar shot as mine or had the same subject, because it meant someone was thinking like me. Still, most of the time I would stop and ponder saying, "Wow, I wouldn't' have interpreted it like that ." I absolutely loved the different perspective. It was very thought provoking.

My blogging friend over at Its Just How I See Things posted this photo for the prompt "Cracked Open."

My photo was this:

Totally different. Neither right. Neither wrong. Simply different interpretations of the same prompt.

So when you think about it, it is just like the kitchen duty. The prompt “clean up” meant one thing to my husband and another to me. Totally different. Neither right. Neither wrong. Simply different interpretations of the same prompt.

Things Don't Always Turn Out Quit as Planned

My plan was for this post to be about my new love. My new

shiny

beautiful

KitchenAid!

I planned for it to be about our love of inanimate objects.

I was going to post a picture of it and the beautiful chocolate chip heart cookies that I made. But things didn't work out the way I planned. The chocolate chip cookies that I tried to make into cutout cookies didn't work out. They looked like flat over cooked chocolate chip cookies. They certainly didn't hold their heart shape.

Usually my response would be frustration.

Aggravation.

But this time I wasn't either. Instead of getting aggravated, I ate a few;

which were still yummy.

Then I moved on.

We make plans. We think we know what the future holds.

But then something happens, whether good or bad and our masterful plan is ca put! Ruined. Or simply just changed. The problem I have found is that when I was younger if a plan went ca put, I just made a new plan. But as an adult, I have stopped making plans. I am not talking about what to eat or plans for a vacation. I am talking about life plans, parenting plans, financial plans.

I planned to only live in this house for a few year. We have been here for 12 1/2 years.

I planned to stay home when I had kids, but have been working outside the home for 8 years.

I planned to not yell like my mother. I yell.

I planned to be financially secure. I have debt coming out of my eyeballs.

It all just happened and I didn't move on and make a new plan. I just muddled along.

But that is all going to change. I am going to start making plans. I am going to attempt to stick to it. But most of all, if the plan doesn't work out, I am going to make a new one. Because you generally don't get anywhere without a plan.

Time Cruncher

I don't like to be late. The thought of being late sends me into a tailspin. Rush. Rush. Rush.

I don't like to be early. It means that I could have done something else in the 15 minutes that I am wasting "sitting" around.

Does that make any sense? Really it doesn't, but it is exactly how I feel and how I create some of my own chaos.

Just the other day my daughter twisted her ankle. The next morning she woke up still complaining. I decided that it was better to be safe than sorry and have it checked. She has an unbelievable pain tolerance, so when she says something hurts - it HURTS.

Did I mention that our pediatrician is about 25 miles away. Sounds kind of crazy, right? I am sure there are very qualified and fantastic doctor's in this "neck of the woods", but when my kid's health and well being is on the line, I am going to the best (in Massachusetts)!

So back to my time crunching. Our appointment was at 10:00. We were early. I was thinking of all the things I could have done at home with those extra 15 minutes. We left with a prognosis of pulled tendon. Prescription - Rest. I drove the 25 miles back home - dropped her off at school at 11:00. My boy child had to be in school at 12:00.

Plenty of time!

I went home. Feed him lunch. Switched laundry. Played the game Trouble with him. Took some self-portraits (I should say tried to take some self-portraits) and then looked at the clock.

My time was up.

We were going to be late! The whole saga began again. Rush. Rush. Rush.

But as usual, we weren't late. We were right on time. So, maybe next time I will be 15 minutes early and just relish in the time to do nothing? Notice the question mark!