Define Lazy

Last night we cut in paint for HOURS.
We patched and repaired broken trim.
We patched all the nail holes in our new trim.
We grouted the bonus room floor (the tiny amount leftover when we ran out of grout).
We mowed the yard.
Our daughter pooped in the potty (this was our biggest accomplishment of the evening).

A few nights ago we installed the second half of our master closet system.
We cut in paint that night too.
We finished trimming out any remaining door frames.
We finished the installation of the island hood.
We finished grouting most of the floors and wall tile.



Paul cleaning up grout on the subway tile wall, with Addison pretending to do the same
to his leg. Outfitted in her Liverpool soccer jersey of course. Just a standard day around
the Ryckbost house. She pretends to do everything we do. She has created her own stud
finder, her own hammer, and her own tape measure. It's funny to see how she mimics.

Our to-do list has dropped from a six page list to a four page list. Tonight we work until we can't see straight and our legs won't hold up our body weight anymore. More paint, more cleaning, more of the little things.

My parents said something on the phone the other night when they asked what was on task for the evening. I rattled off the long list of items we were going to attempt and they responded with, "you guys are some of the hardest working people we know."

Huh.

I don't know why all of a sudden that statement struck a chord with me but it did. Since July of 2012 we have been extremely over committed. I've said it before and I'll say it again. We both work full time jobs, our house takes up at least 36-40 hours of our time, I teach a college class, I took the third part of my professional exam (again), we potty trained a toddler and put her in a big girl bed, Paul planned an entire conference, I participated in a charity fashion show, and and and......

These last few weeks I haven't felt like a hard worker. As soon as we moved into the house our motivation to finish dropped drastically. We were taking longer to ramp up with projects and ending our evenings a lot earlier than we had previously. We were finding more time to catch TV shows here and there. I was feeling frustrated with our "laziness" and starting to get down on us for it.

But at some point something had to give. Thankfully class is out for the summer though I am behind on my final grades and must get them posted, the fashion show is over, we are 99% potty trained, my exam results won't come in until June, Paul's conference is over today and within days, we will be done with our agreed upon renovations.

Within days we will be on to un-packing our boxes. Organizing. Hanging artwork. Creating our home. I'll be making bigger lists with tasks like building bookshelves for the bonus room and minor improvements we'll make over the years like a new fence and a new sidewalk. We'll start working in our yard. We'll start playing on Saturdays instead of always working. All within days.

I feel like my generation is typically so privileged and lazy. I can't say I love how much we have had going on. I'm tired and irritable and ready for a break. And while I can't say I love work, I don't like feeling lazy either. So when my parents made the statement and I took a moment to consider, if I were to honestly step back and evaluate the definition of "lazy", I don't think we qualify and I'm proud of that.