We all have days when no matter what we do, everything seems to go wrong. It feels like every step is a stumble… into a brick wall… and we get nothing but bad news and bad surprises.

If only we could go home and crawl back into bed until it’s over.

If only we didn’t have to deal with all the other people and things in the world that are completely out of our control things would go so much more smoothly! If only my dream motto of ‘just do what I say’ actually worked!

As much control as we want to have, or we might even think we have over everything in our lives, it doesn’t seem to take much to throw everything into a whirlwind of seeming disaster. Kim & Scott’s kitchen renovation? Combine a little bad weather, two plumbing emergencies on totally different projects, a no show electrician and – surprise – we all forgot to mention to the GC that there’s an endless amount of plaster and lathe under that drywall {hello double the amount of time to do anything}, and suddenly a simple two day project is sliding into its second week – UGH.

frustration. station. {to say the least}

One thing we can count on on days like these is that we will learn something, whether we want to or not, whether we stiffen up and resist like mad {which I can guarantee from personal experience will just make it worse} or surrender and laugh and just how annoying  and frustrating curve balls in life can be. On bad news days sometimes we really only have control over how we react.

If only there was a ‘totally avoid the experience and have things go smoothly instead’ option.

So today I learned more about patience, surrender, that I have a lot more amusement when the things that go wrong mostly affect me and not my friends or clients, that really in construction start days and timelines are at best an ‘ish’, an optimistic/if all goes smoothly/educated estimate, and if you finish on time you just get to count your lucky stars because I still haven’t seen a project with nothing unexpected and zero surprises or delays… and that a bad day makes a good glass of wine at the end of it taste even better.

Here’s to hoping for a day full of good surprises tomorrow.