Mothers and Daughters... Sigh... Mothers and Daughters...
As you know the wife and I have moved recently and while I thought we were settled in, the news of an impending mother in law visit quickly schooled me that we weren't... I found out late last week that my mother in law was coming to see the new place and have lunch. This prompted my wife to order one new rug for the kitchen and a rug to replace the leather one (yes a leather rug... Don't ask!) in our living room, along with a new painting for over our bed. It is at this point I should tell you that Overstock.com is my wife's favorite web destination.
You must also know that Monday is my wife and I's Anniversary, so what you have here is a perfect storm. Expectations for a wonderful Anniversary and a Mother in Law visit that must be prepped for... When I arrived home from work today all the packages from Overstock.com were in the apartment (our building will sign for the packages then deliver them to your apartment, neat right?) The wife was working late so I came inside and began my tasks :
Hang New Bedroom Painting (which are three paintings by the by). This involved moving the bed out along with the night stands. All told hanging the paintings took about 30 minutes with all the furniture moving.
Put bed skirt on bed. With the mother in law coming I had to ensure our bed was ready to display the "formal bedding." So I heaved the damn mattress, got the bed skirt on, then set about putting the mattress back on the box spring slowly to make sure I did not dislocate the bed skirt. This took another 20 minutes.
Now on to hanging a picture above the bath tub. Yes you heard (read) me right. We have a painting that the wife loves, a gift from my mother, that I had been putting off dealing with. What follows needs to be a judgement free zone... So, the painting never came with string to hang so in the old house I used a length of chain that was too long from a ceiling fan. Remember what I said, no judging. It worked great but the chain broke during the move. I first tried to tape the chain in place for hanging. Seriously, I know, but you promised no judging! Well, that felt secure but after I walked away the painting fell. Scared the cat something fierce. So I was stuck. I wanted to get the painting hung before the wife got home, but I had no twine and was low on time. So I did something that I think is very MacGuyver... I took the draw string from and old pair of gym shorts and ta-da I have a hung painting. This took damn near 45 minutes...
Clean out the closet I have been shoving stuff into. We have a closet in the guest bathroom that has been the store house of "crap we don't know what to do with yet", well the day of reckoning was upon me and I needed to get it all organized and turned into a linen closet. Another hour...
Hang another painting in the hallway outside the guest bathroom. Only about 5 minutes.
Empty and load the dishwasher. Probably 10 minutes, it was really full when I emptied it. Below is just what I had to load it with.
Put heavy books on the new carpet in the kitchen to get it to lay flat. Seconds really.
Laundry. The rest of my damn life... I am never done with laundry.
And I did all of this while drinking... Because hey if you gotta do some chores, why not get a buzz on while you are at it. See, men can be good multi-taskers. No time at all, and before you ask, yes, that is a Star Gate Coaster I am using. Jealous?
Now besides the drinking, this looks like a fairly busy night, and you are right. But I did all of these things with a smile on my face, even though I just got done working a full day because I know two things:
1.) I love my wife, she is awesome.
2.) Mothers and Daughters...
"Okay, TheHusBlog you keep saying Mothers and Daughters like it is some sort of epiphany. What the hell do you mean?"
Alright voice in my head, you asked for it... It's time for
"A TheHusBlog Definition Pause."
I hate it when you steal my thunder.
"It's not that hard."
TheHusBlog Definition Pause : Mother and Daughter Rules
- They are always different : Mother/Daughter relationships vary by person and even if you know the rules for one it will not apply to others.
- Daughters have to prove themselves constantly : A Daughter is almost always trying to show her mother how good she is doing. This could be for the benefit of the mother; to prove that she raised a good daughter. Or for the detriment of the mother; to prove the daughter succeeded despite the mother.
- Mothers can be mean without knowing it : Mothers can be encouraging to their daughters while at the same time mean without knowing it. Example : "Oh honey it is nice to see how much you can do with so little..."
This is not to say that all mother/daughter relationships are bad but to be honest there are at least a couple land mines in those relationships. The best advice is to work hard, be understanding, and for heaven's sake pick up after yourself.
I knew that my wife was going to go through a stressful time, and I decided to make it easier as best I could. I did not get bitter or angry that I was going to lose a Friday night. Instead I embraced my task because what better Anniversary gift than the gift of getting shit done!
-TheHusBlog
10:00 AM
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1 Comment
Wow! You made it sound so simple to try to spare soomeone additional stress...that is apparently not a lesson learned yet in this house! Happy anniversary!