Start Like You Plan To Go On

That was what my mom said almost every day for the three months that Jefferson and I were engaged, and you know, I never really understood it until recently.

You see, when we were first married, I tried to be what I thought was the "perfect housewife" {and let's be real here, there's no such thing}. I'd do all the chores myself, dishes, laundry, vaccuming, dusting, garbage, bathroom, cooking, and to be honest, with all that hanging over me, not to mention schooling and work, it's no wonder my mom's saying started to make sense. I did not want to be doing everything around the house for eternity!

So that's when I started to slowly reintroduce my husband into this new environment, one in which he was an active participant. At first it wasn't a big deal, little things that bothered me didn't really matter because he was helping, right? But after more than five months of not a single trash liner in sight, I'd had it. I didn't want to go on like this either, where yes, things get done, but it's not followed through. Argh! I was about to go crazy!

Now I don't want you to get the wrong idea. We weren't living in a stye, just a mess, you know, counters in need of a good wipe, followed by a sweeping of the floors, those types of things. But there is a certain way I like to have things done and Jefferson, bless his heart, grew up in entirely different circumstances, and therefore doesn't know how to do things the way I like. Well, one day, when I was going to call my sister for help in digging out our kitchen sink from under all those dishes, Jefferson stopped me and said, "Let's do it together."

"Uuuuh...but....well, you see..." I was trying to come up with a good excuse as to why my sister was needed. Start like you plan to go on, said my mother's voice in the back of my mind and I knew she was right. Someday we won't live as close to our families, there won't be a sister to come and save the day, we'll have to do it all by ourselves. And besides, I don't want my sister's only memory of us later to be that we only wanted her over if she'd do the dishes.

So, we dove in head first. Eventually, yes, my sister came over and saw the sink {which I had been working on, despite what anyone else thinks} and just attacked it, but since then, Jefferson and I have kept our kitchen spotless. No procrastinating in that area...now if only I could teach that man of mine to put trash liners in the garbage cans! Then my world would be perfect!