I *heart* my husband!

I had one of "those" days...

ya know...

the...

didn't get enough sleep...

house is oh.so.messy.where.do.i.start...

a back-slidden-potty-trainee...

a not our usual smooth school room adventure...

can't seem to find a way to sneak into the shower...

kinda day!!!

Then the husband come home from a hards day of work...
and his wife has no interest to figure out something for dinner, AND wants to sit on her bum to watch not one, but two episodes of her favorite show. :^/

(nice, huh?... yeah, not so much)

He cleans the kitchen spotless, then fixes dinner, (yes, this is pitiful, I do know this), and strongly directs the older children into pitching in with the rest of the house disaster...

and as I feel like the loser wife of the century, I add to my not.so.lovely.charm.of.the.day by saying "hmmm, couldn't handle my day off eh?" (like why start a war? sheesh, what was i thinking?)

and dear Husband says in his matter-of-fact, plain, simply-stating-a- truth, calm-sorta-way...

"There is too much to do around here for any one (1) person"

ugh!

If he only knew that I LOVE...

doing his laundry so he always has the clothes he needs ready to wear...

keeping the house tidy so that he feels invited in after work...

pulling off a descent dinner to feed his stomach & warm his heart...

to keep finances in order as to be good stewards of his hard efforts of daily work...

schedules that keep our kids eager to learn, especially when dad is home to share with...

friday.night.candle.light.shave.my.legs.bubbly.baths
that helps me feel like a person (aka wife) again.

One of "those" days are rare, and it isn't pretty, but my man loves me anyways...

Thank you God for such a man as this! =)

Got love?

Valentines' Day is a holiday with such mixed messages.

I love the decorative-ness of it. Red is simply my favorite color. Hearts, lace, roses... This is when I am grateful for having a daughter, one whom squeals with glee at decorating for any holiday, but this one definitely has a feminine flair to it, don't ya think?

I do not care for Valentine's Day in itself. The commercialism, the pressure it puts on men, the expectation of 'want' that is pushed for us women. The idea of a holiday telling my husband that this is the day he HAS to tell me he loves me, that he should be getting me a mushy card, that he is suppose to buy me flowers, balloons, and a fabulous child-free romantic dinner out... this whole idea makes me nauseous...

this is when I hear all the wonderful stories of woo-ing that other husbands do. This is also when I hear of hurt feelings of a wife that didn't quite get what she was hoping for. This is when I cringe at the store that seems to scream at my husband to not forget his wife on this oh-so-important-holiday...

this is when I smile...
as I reflect at all the ways my husband tells me he loves me on a daily basis.

~He works hard everyday, both physically & mentally- always without complaint.
~He is incredibly patient, even on the days when he is exhausted.
~He is the one that originally initiated me to stay home to be full time mommy! WOW, that in itself was probably the one most important gift he has ever gave me.
~He knows how to make me smile with the simplest of a whisper & a glimmer in his eye.
~I love when he takes all the kids out to play- all.of.them.- great bonding time with the teens, and the littles run off a lot of extra energy, and I am finally able to get things done in the house. =)
~It is wonderful when he participates in our family reading time in the evenings.
~I appreciate that he never balks at my lack of skills in the kitchen (really, I am quite pitiful at cooking).
~I love that he is fully supportive of our children having a home-based education!

He loves me as-is~ the frumpy days, the energetic days, the pull-my-hair out days, the have-it-all-together days, my roundness days, my fitter fitness days, my house-is-a-disaster days, my compulsive-clean-every-nook-and-cranny days... through it all, Fred always loves me.

So as Valentine approaches, and the sweet nothings of romance begin all around us...

I'll quietly whisper thanks to the good Lord for this amazing man who completes me...

For ever, for always, and no matter what.....