Monday, July 18, 2011

The Dreaded Weekend

Ever have those weekends that you dread? The kind of weekend that you actually are a little bummed about come Friday? That's how this weekend was for me. Why? I'll explain.

A couple weeks back, Phoenix was hit by a haboob (a HUGE wall of dust...google it or see picture above, it's actually a picture from this last haboob). So needless to say, the entire outside of our house was covered with dust - the patios, furniture, windows, you name it. So for the last couple of weeks, I knew we would have to hose everything down and wash the windows, buuut I was dreading it. Something about doing work outside for several hours straight when it's 110 degrees out doesn't scream fun weekend activity to me. But this weekend was the weekend for it, and I knew this weekend was the weekend for it, so this weekend was the weekend I was dreading!

So Friday evening came and went, and we didn't hose off the outside. Instead, we went to the gym, rented a Redbox movie (Rango), and enjoyed a really great meal (buffalo chicken wraps..YUM). And then it was Saturday. We got up, made french toast and headed off (after Ronnie's morning treatment of course) to a matinee. Then to get out of hosing off the outdoors, we actually did other chores. We went to Sam's Club to do some grocery shopping. Then we came home, and totally organized and cleaned out the pantry, the fridge and the freezer. Then it was dinner time and we watched another movie (Unbreakable). So Saturday came and went, and I managed to "trick" Ronnie into not doing the outside cleaning. But then it was Sunday...dun dun dunnn...and the last day of the weekend (which meant I could no longer put off the outside). We went to church in the AM, got home to have some lunch, and then it was time to get to work. Four hours later, the outside was hosed down, the windows were washed (inside and out), the window frames on the inside were washed (somehow dirt/dust actually makes it way inside the windows on the window frames), the house was picked up, and the flowers in the yard were pruned.

And at the end of the 4 hours I realize something very important: I was putting off and dreading 4 hours of work. 4 hours that flew by, were very productive, and I hardly noticed the time passing. So I've decided that in the future, instead of dreading something ALL week and weekend, I'm just going to bite the bullet and get it done. In fact, we were so inspired by the clean pantry, fridge and outdoors that we decided each night this week we're going to pick a single job (starting with the closets) and knot it out.

So my question for you is this...what project are you putting off around the house currently? Or what project were you putting off, that once you did it, felt like no big deal?