Expect The Unexpected!

Hello there!!! Yes, everyone should be sitting for this....I'm blogging for the first time in over a year. Don't ask me why though, I'm still not sure. I've been thinking a lot about it lately but could never focus on one topic to write about, until tonight that is.
The first stop is explaining what led to this idea and it was about 30 minutes ago. I was wrapping up all the chores for the night and was excited to go to bed at a decent time since all this week it's been 12:30 or later that I've gone to bed. My last thing was to take out the trash and then I expected to be in bed directly after that, before 10:30, SWEET! Well, that was the problem, I EXPECTED. That has been a very heavy word in my mind lately and this was the icing on the cake to show to me how significant that one word and thought could be to a person. I grabbed the last box and went to walk outside and spilled the whole container of old potting soil on the counters and floors in the kitchen. Just wonderful! All I wanted to do was go to bed and was so excited for my pillow and now here I am sweeping the floors and cleaning most of my kitchen at 10:30 at night. It was one of those moments where I could have either thrown a fit (and the rest of the trash) on the floor or just dealt with it and moved on. I really hope I'm not the only one who has chosen the fit once or twice in my life. Well tonight I chose the higher road and just kept going. With my mind calm this gave me great opportunity to talk with myself. Again, I hope I'm not the only one who does this, at least I tell myself I'm not.
Expect and expectation is something that can really effect someone. I had been thinking of it, like I said earlier, so much I finally looked it up. The definition is 'regard as likely to happen' by dictionary.com and 'the act or state of looking forward to or anticipating (expectation)' by the heritage dictionary. Likely to happen?! Was it likely to happen that I went to bed early? Yeah, maybe but that changed. Is it likely to happen that you have a perfectly healthy baby? Yes but not always. What about expecting that surprise you have for your loved ones to create the perfect reaction? Sometimes I think we use the word expect to loosely but then have the highest hope for the outcome. Oh I'm expecting a great day on my birthday. What is a great day? To me it's sleeping in, spending time at the pool and with my family, maybe not having to cook and keeping a clean house. (weird combination I know) But I know for a fact that is not my husbands or many other peoples 'great day'.
So why do we use the word expect and have such high expectations? Now believe me, I know I am barely learning about this and I'm sure most of you know how to deal with this already, but maybe there is just one other person out there contemplating these same things, and of course it's always easier to say then do. My goal lately is to first, not set unattainable goals. I think that's a good first step because it wipes out a lot of the higher emotional ideas. Okay you have a massive to do list on top of a lunch date and workout class and funeral, but you still expect to get all 30 things done, don't! Work as hard as you can and do the most you can but don't be heart broken when you forgot you had to fill up with gas, hit rush hour traffic and got a call from someone who needs to talk for 30 minutes. If you don't have that expectation of perfection or impossibility I think it makes the day much smoother and pleasant. Secondly I really think you need to look at how much of those expectations you can control, because maybe you can control your plan to create a fun picnic date but you cannot control the rain (or smoke in our case). Don't stress. Thirdly I believe that you need to let your expectations known to others, especially if you are married and have kids. For example, if your perfect day includes sleeping in but you never tell everyone and they come in with breakfast in bed at 7 am, they are super excited to treat you and well, your not as excited. This can start the day off way wrong, but could have been prevented if you would have said something. Even if it's 'hey, really have to make it to the grocery store today no matter what'. That will help others knowledgeable of your expectations. Lastly I think if you must set expectations that being flexible in your expectations is the best way to float through the day instead of battling up a raging river. One definition was 'hopeful'. One word, meaning to wish for something with expectation of it's fulfillment. Always have hope, never give that up because everyone needs to live for something but remember, no matter your expectations of your day, week, month or next 5 years, God always knows what's going on and sometimes He lets us in on the plan and sometimes we just need to float and trust in Him. Go out there and plan a great party and hope it all goes well but know that nothing (and no one) is perfect, so enjoy the ride no matter what!!