My husband and I work separate schedules. I work 8-5, and he works from 3pm to 2am. I have to get our girls to & from school. Our younger daughter has karate three times per week, our older daughter has girl scout commitments (and I'm the troop leader), and both of my girls play on soccer teams. This week at work I've been involved in a very stressful and very urgent project, so I've been feeling extremely overwhelmed. I was stressed today because we have a project for girl scouts that needs to be done by Friday but we have so many commitments during the week I had no idea how we were going to get it done! I came home from work today and my husband had cleaned the kitchen (he knows how much I hate to cook in a dirty kitchen!), put away all the laundry, and volunteered to do half of my daughter's girl scouts project so she could easily do the rest by herself, freeing me up to breathe! He saved my day for sure! He did all of this while in pain, he had a really bad ingrown toenail removed yesterday. I am so full of appreciation for him right now! Three questions: 1. What has your husband done lately that you are grateful for? 2. What do you do to show your husband how much you appreciate him? (besides the obvious of course, lol) and, 3. How many extra-curriculars is your family involved in? I didn't think we were spread too thin until my husband started working nights (and he will go back to days soon), but maybe I should nix something? I don't want to over-extend my children.
Thanks!
Today was the one day a week my hubby and I have off together. He was up by 630, let me sleep till 9 and while I was sleeping did 2 loads od laundry, cleaned the kitchen and our bathroom and put the laundry away. He also put our two year old down for nap today. :) It's funny..we actually bickered a lot today, and typing this out makes me realize how awesome he is. We have our days for sure, but he is def my hero!
I feel your pain on the karate, lol. We have 2 who do it. One just made 2nd Dan (Tang Soo Do) this past Saturday, so he has been on an extreme schedule for the past 3 months prior to testing. Our daughter is still a green belt and they usually only do 2 classes per week. BUT, they also have been taking advantage of the recently offered jiu-jitsu at the karate school... so that is another 2 nights per week. And they take confirmation classes at church once per week. Daughter also takes piano one day per week. And we "homeschool".
My husband always does things for me, and usually just when I need it most, too. His latest: said "how about we go to Outback for dinner tonight?" on Monday. We'd had weekend company (due to son's all day karate testing on Saturday-in another city), got up and went to church on Sunday morning, and went out with friends for the SuperBowl on Sunday night. Monday was school, and I had my Mammo scheduled for yesterday morning. So, no worrying about what to cook for dinner OR clean up on Monday night! Wahoo!
:)
I try to do the things my husband associates with me caring for him. (seriously---CARING)... like setting up the coffee pot the night before (he gets up super early some days and no one else is up before he leaves for work), making his lunch and having it ready to go in the fridge, sometimes I'll take his car and put gas in it for him, keeping the fridge stocked with beer, buying him the pricey greek yogurt he loves, keeping a stash of Turtles in the back of a kitchen cabinet just for him, buying him new socks, picking up anything new by Kashi so he can try it, letting him read the National Review first..... It's the little things my husband likes. :)
My ex husband did NOTHING to help with the house and kids. My new husband of two years does EVERYTHING, including working very hard in 100% sales to provide for us and he's a top agent in AZ. He will come home and do whatever he see's needs to be done...dishes, floors, whatever, and he does all the laundry and there's FIVE of us. I haven't touched it in over 4 years! He says the only things he wants from me is to be there for our kids (his ex was not a mother at ALL, in every sense of the word). I show him how much I appreciate him but I honestly tell him all the time too. We are his priority and he show it to us every day and I'm so thankful! And our kids aren't in ANY extra-curricular. They have never expressed any interest. Our daughter loves music and plays the viola and elect guitar and our son is active enough on his own although he's mentioned he wants us to check into gymnastics for him. so that may be in the future for us. I'm glad we have so much time with the kids and I think some families are way too busy with other things to enjoy just being together. Our kids are young only for so long and it won't be long before they are off on their own and we will be begging them for some time.
I was really sick over the weekend, and my husband took care of everything so I could veg on the couch and recover. He cooked dinner Friday, Sat and Sun, did the Home Depot kids' project with them, fixed our fence, almost caught up on dirty dishes, and many other things. He also supports me at least once a year so I can get away for girls' weekend. Right now to show my appreciation, I'm working on arranging the time and money for him to have a guys' weekend. I have a side job, so I'm setting aside some money to surprise him :)
As far as extra-curriculars, we only allow 1 outside activity per child. So far we only have 2 activities (the youngest isn't even 3 yet), and that's enough for us! My husband usually isn't home on weeknights, so I have to be able to get the boys to everything on my own. Right now one does cub scouts (1-2 nights per week) and one does karate (1 night per week, plus 1 Saturday every 8 weeks). But you add on school and church activities, and sometimes we're out of the house 4 weeknights. Right now is the time for my kids to just be kids, so I try to maximize their free play time (including playing with friends). Once they get to be teenagers, they'll have so many responsibilities that they'll barely be home. So I want them home now, when I can still have more influence in their lives than their friends do. And I want them to have good memories of time with their parents and siblings, not just running from one activity to another.
Awwww....nice!
I always tell my husband he can go to "hero" very quickly. (And about once per quarter he does something really really amazing and heroic like that!)
But then he does something really, REALLY annoying and "boom" he's back to zero! LOL
Overall, more hero than zero.
I think men just like to hear the fact that they're our heroes. So tell him!
