I have to brag for a moment because my husband and I are now undergoing a home renovation for the third time in three years. Try not to be too jealous of our ongoing under-construction home site. The first two renovations were gladly welcomed as we overhauled our master suite and then our kitchen / dining / living room areas before our son was born. We bought my husband’s grandmother’s home and have lovingly remodeled it to make it work for our young family. We did leave the bathroom cabinets full of white t-shirts and underwear just as MawMaw did for those times when you need a quick dip in the bath and a change of clothes.
Now we have bare floors in just over 1,000 square feet of our house thanks to an A/C overflow. I am still bragging about this remodel because we had the floors ripped up and hauled off before 9am on a Saturday morning just in time to make it to a backyard birthday party. I used to be amazed when I would reminisce about what I have accomplished back when I got more sleep and ate full meals regularly. I guess that’s the true reason I want to brag, and why you should be too.
Like my house, I have been under construction for some time now. I find myself constantly growing, changing, adapting, being built up and then redone to reach new achievements and challenges. The accomplishments I reminisce about, the ones done under better sleep and diet conditions don’t come close to the challenges I have faced since then. Of course I didn’t know it then, I thought those were my peaks and I had conquered the world. Those peaks being cycling across the country, playing collegiate volleyball, working full time while getting my MBA, starting my career, etc.
I don’t list these accomplishments to brag, or for you to compare, but merely as a reminder that the hard things I have done have brought me to the confidence I have now when I face my latest challenge. We can’t compare our lives in challenges though, we will all lose to the girl who must ‘one-up’ everyone (we all know the one), but instead we can see each other’s mountain tops and celebrate because we all know the amount of work it takes to reach a peak. It takes time under construction to pave a road to the top of any mountain.
While my latest challenge was living under construction with a toddler (both literally and metaphorically), I share this with you so you too can celebrate this phase and we can all look forward to reaching the mountain top with new found confidence and strength. Like the strength of my coffee at 6am aiding me to be “Mom Hulk” taking up the dining room floors.
