My Husband's Support During This New Season

This fall has been an extraordinarily busy season for Chris and I, and coping has been a challenge at times, let alone succeeding.  At the beginning of the semester Chris offered to take over the house duties for me - both to reduce my work/stress load and to give me more time to rest.  This was a challenge for me for two reasons: one (the more honorable of the two), keeping the house is one of the biggest ways I get to serve and love my husband and it was hard to give that up, even temporarily.  Two, there are a lot of things around the house and in my grocery shopping that I like to be a particular way - my pride and selfishness pointed out that only I knew how to fold the towels just so and stack them in a pretty manner (as I said, not the honorable challenge!).  After loosing much sleep (and a little hair) trying to do it all for a week however, I returned to my husband, repented of my pride in thinking I could handle all of it and asked if his offer was still open.  Of course it was and the transition of work from me to him began.

Chris has graciously, and competently, taken over pretty much all of the household duties.  He has done a great job at keeping both of us fed and presentable over the last couple of months.  I think the hardest thing for me to give up was the groceries.  I enjoy planning and preparing meals and choosing what we are going to eat for the week - plus I have a long list of preferred brands and ways of doing things since I've had the job for five years now.  It has taken some humility, a lot of communication about preferences and what's need for recipes and a little lip biting when things aren't just the way I'd do it, but I am so proud of and thankful for how quickly he has found his own method of accomplishing all the things that need done.  He is really making use of Wal-Mart's price matcher promise and even going to more than one store most weeks to find all the things we want/need at the best quality and price.  He has noticed that the Winn Dixie next to us often has sales on their Organic Valley products (our favorite eggs and milk when we can afford it).  Combining those sales with our coupons from Mom and Dad has saved us a lot on our weekly budget!

While I'm happy this 'season' will soon be over (we're hoping things will be a bit more 'normal' after Eb is born), I am so thankful that my husband has willingly shouldered this extra load to help make life a bit easier on me!