Everything takes longer than I think it will.

My husband is a dyed-in-the-wool home improvement junkie, and I, by association, have ended up deeply embroiled in more DIY projects than I care to discuss. Not one – not a single one – of our projects has ever gone as planned.

It’s not Saturday around here without a trip to the hardware mega store, the nursery, the local hardware store or the plumbing supply store. His theory? Take the number of hours (or days) you estimate for any project and multiply that by 10. Then go ahead and another day or two. Or 10. That’s how long the project will really take.

Wonder, Friend is a little like that. I like to think I’m highly optimistic about all that I can accomplish on any given day, but delusional is probably a better adjective for my outlook. Do not be mistaken. I’m not discouraged. I’m not complaining. Just saying that I naively (stupidly?) assumed a couple things:

One, that I would have the blog in great shape and have several posts in the works by now; and two, that people would be clamoring to be guest bloggers and guest experts.

In reality, my day job is also a nights and weekends job. My bosses are tyrannical and unrepentant in their need for my constant intervention. It’s going to take some time to find a workable rhythm to blogging with some purpose and maintaining order in my home (or: Just Keeping the Kids Alive).

Additionally, all of the amazing people I expect to help me by answering questions and guest blogging are busy or contractually unable to blog about their professional expertise or shy or any number of other things. It’s surprising, but when I email them a question at 11:57 p.m. on a Tuesday, they don’t always shoot back an answer by 12:02 a.m. on Wednesday.

I hope you will come along with me as I figure all of this out. For now, my goals are few and simple. Assuming I am not deluding myself, you can expect to see one or two posts each week. I also hope you’ll stop by every Wednesday for Wonder Why Wednesdays. This week will be our inaugural Wonder Why Wednesday. Check back Wednesday morning for more information about participating. Stop sweating – participation will require very little time or effort. There is no homework or prep work involved!

So last month I put this question out there:

Got me thinking… While we live in a culture of total self promotion (exhibit A: this little blog), we are still self-deprecating at heart. Our first reaction is often one of, “Aw, shucks, it was nothin'”. Maybe a little less folksy, but certainly along those lines.

So I wonder, why? Where does that come from?

In the interest of YOUR time, I’ll end here. I originally included some thoughts on the question in this post, but talk about things taking longer than you expect. The post was getting a bit lengthy. So go back to your regularly scheduled activities, and please return tomorrow to ponder with me.