Winter blues and blessings and awesome men.

D has been off the past eight days due to weather.  Of course the first winter he has an outside job, it’s been the coldest winter in, like, history.  We have had to make some adjustments.  Financial adjustments, attitude adjustments, being cooped up in the house adjustments.

I have learned a lot. After seven years, yes, I am still learning.

-He is kick ass at getting all the laundry done.

-Our kids love him.  So friggin much.

Mason typically wants me to put him to bed.  If he gets the feeling Daddy is, he gets really upset.  Part of me thinks it’s a comfort thing.  He doesn’t like to be out of his routine.  Last night however, when I was walking with him to his room, M said, ‘Mom!  Daddy put mines bed!’ I was shocked, but also happy that he initiated that himself.  Alyvia loves to wrestle with D, loves to be chased by him, and I know she has really enjoyed having him around the last week.

-When he is able to cook dinner, it changes my entire mood.  I don’t have to rush around to get ABC done.  We have been able to use our awesome team-playing skills, that I sometimes forget we have, and it has been glorious.

-He has taught me to let things go.  Let the dirty dishes go, let the clothes on the floor go, let the toys scattered everywhere go.  They will be there tomorrow.  Although it is much easier to get it all done when we are both home, a day a week I decide to just…let it go.

While he being home could have been stressful for many reasons, it wasn’t.  We worked it out, as always.  I didn’t panic, we chose to stay home to avoid the urge to spend, we snuggled a lot, enjoyed the quad, played in the snow; we were productive, we were lazy, we played and laughed and listened.

Wives/Mommies, although sometimes husbands/daddies may stress us out by not doing something you asked them to at that very second, they may leave their mud covered boots right in front of the door, or their work coat on the furniture, or last night’s dinner dishes on the stove, when they do help more than usual, or hug you when they know you need it, or cook half the dinners that week, or entertain the kids so you can shower - remember it.  Appreciate it.  Hold onto it.  For when they aren’t around, whether its work or play, you will wish they were there doing all those things.  We may think as moms we do it all (we do most of the time); dads do a lot, too.

Here’s to awesome men.  You are totally, unmistakably awesome, babe.