How do you react when life throws lemons?

Life has been… interesting lately.

It’s like we make plans, feel confident in what we’re doing, and at that point universe laughs hysterically at us and throws a few more lemons for us to jump over.

If you follow along on Facebook or Instagram you would have seen that we were so excited at the start of last week as the painters had finally started. That was until they finished two days later and we pretty much had textured 1980s style walls. Yep, not exactly the look I was going for.

After 3 other painters quoting and not turning up, and months of waiting, it’s probably needless to say that my first reaction was a really attractive combination of anger and tears.

To their credit they did come back the following week and ‘fix’ it.  And it is 50% better.  But this is our Number 1 house.  This is the house we’ve been dreaming of for the last 7 years. We completed our last renovation with the mindset that it had to look as good as it could for the least amount of money.  But with this one? This one we’re playing for keeps. 

So despite that fact that the paint is probably only going to be noticeable to those who know to look, it’s going to stand out to us forever, and so we’re going to re-sand and re-paint. Which really, totally defeats the purpose of the painters in the first place.

Combine the paint dilemma with quite a few other curveballs we’ve been thrown recently; gastro, a toddler who thinks 2.30am is an appropriate time to get up and other various suprises; and I am honestly impressed with how well we’re coping. Yep, I’m totally giving ourselves a virtual pat in the back. (Without coming across as a smug a***, I think it’s something we should do more often).

I feel like a few years ago, hell even 6 months ago, we’d probably have taken the emotional rollercoaster out on each other.  Not in a direct way, but we would have let the disappointment and anger taint the way we interacted with each other.  You know the drill, you start snapping and fighting over insignificant things because the big stuff is out of our control entirely and doesn’t make for quite the same level of petty argument.

Instead we vented and moped and then swallowed the disappointment with a big lump of ‘oh well, we learnt our lesson’. And we’ve moved on.

Who knew the secret was just to feel it, let it go, and just get on with it?!

So tell me, has life given you lemons lately?  How did you react?