DIY. Do-it-yourself. That is me. I’m a total DIY-er.
Whether it is my home, my family, my career, my life. I’ve always tried to DIY the whole thing.
It is my downfall. (Well, it is one of them.)
We love DIY, don’t we? We watch the DIY shows. Read the DIY blogs. Hit the DIY stores. And that is all good when it is your bathroom, your closet, or your home office/craft room redecoration project.
But, you know where DIY doesn’t work? Your marriage. Your family. Your life. And sometimes often, I get that confused.
When I get into “DIY-mode” like I’ve been lately, sparked by my current office overhaul, I get very task-oriented, very driven, and very distant in all the relationships of my life. Hey, when you are doing-it-yourself, you don’t need others. In fact, they just seem to get in the way.
This was the mode I had been living in going on two weeks when I heard in the darkness of my bedroom, coming from somewhere to my right and the location of my dear husband’s pillow, “You are disengaged. With me. With the kids.”
My first reaction was defensiveness. I felt a hundred reasons and rationalizations why I had been preoccupied with “to do’s” and not the big “I do” (a.k.a. my marriage) shoot into my brain and head for my tongue. Instead, I stayed quiet, because sometimes shutting up and listening to those rare moments when our husband open up and share their hearts is the most respectful thing we can do.
That right there has taken 8 years of practice and a LOT of failure.
As the morning came and the defensiveness burned off with the fog that laid around our home, the rays of sunshine hit my heart and I reflected on the last 14 day of my life. Cancelled and postponed dates with friends. Phone calls sent to voicemail and not returned. A pile of “not now’s” and “maybe later’s” at the feet of my children. For my husband, a groggy good-bye in morning and a kiss on his peaceful, already sleeping face at night, and a bunch of “honey do’s” and “occupy the kids” in between.
My Facebook status during the big “painting” week said it all…”Okay, the next DIY home improvement I do…I will work a 60 minute massage and marriage therapy into the budget.”
Do you think God sometimes looks down on us DIY-ers, just shaking his head, as we once again try to do it all ourselves? He surely doesn’t want us to do {marriage, family, life} ourselves. We are to do it with Him, and I had left Him out the last couple of weeks too.
So, as much as I want to show you where I’m at in my home office/craft room makeover project, I haven’t made much progress these last 7 days. The majors are done, but it is the minors that take a lot of time. I can’t tell you when it will be ready to show, but I can tell you I just had the best weekend with my husband and kids, I’m rescheduling dates with friends and I am thankful that my God continues to show me to replace the {my}self with {Him}self.
Okay, I couldn’t resist just a few before and afters.
This floor started with very old carpeting, so the steps in between involved yanking up carpet and padding, prying off tack strips, scrapping off chunks of glued down padding, pulling up a billion staples, filling holes, sanding, painting a coat of primer, two coats of floor paint (with 24 hours in between) and 3 days of dry time.
This was my Mom’s sewing table and we negotiated a trade. I gave her my oversized office furniture set (which looks fantastic in her office/sewing room) and this became mine. I like the more modern look and storage that this offers, but it needed some love to really come to life. It looks much better in the room than on the gravel in the barn, but you’ll have to wait for those pics!
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