Man-sized job

As you well know I grew up with brothers.   I think very well of men and have no desire to demean them, but I do not understand them even after being surrounded by them my entire life.  At times they are hard workers anxious to please and make themselves useful, and at other times I feel like I have to nag to get them to do it, we women get tired of waiting around and do it ourselves.  And at other times we just want to test our talents and try our hand at something different than the norm of running a load or fixing a meal no one will enjoy.

Can I be self sufficient without offending my husband's or any other man's, for that matter, sense of masculinity?  And does that somehow make me less feminine to be more adept at 'manly things'?  It certainly doesn't make a man feminine to change a diaper, it just makes them less inept. 

I'm well acquainted with hard work and am quite capable of doing it by myself.  I make my own honey-do list and sometimes I start them and other times I actually complete them. I admit, I jump in a bit foolheartedly a bit oblivious as to what this actually entails and my adventures spring a leak as it were, sitting half-baked for a good spin around the calendar.  I like the idea of being a self-sufficient Texan woman with no need of the husband that's out on the range.  I fancy myself much more capable than I am, landing me in a fix and throwing a tantrum about the nail that refuses to find wood behind the molding.  But is it good or bad?

My son, now nearly two, came out of the shoot with a character so fierce and firm as to label him determined.  I wish for nothing more than that my children's dreams come true.  I am certain that they will, nothing will stand in his way.  I hope that my characteristic will be a positive, but will I always fall short of my personal expectations?  Can you be both patient and determined, feminine and proficient?