David works for a photo services company as their CFO. They put Santa and the Easter Bunny in over 100 shopping malls in the United States. So as you can imagine, the fall and the spring are VERY busy times for his company. This was David's second year working as CFO, so I was secretly hoping he might not have to work quite as many hours as the year before. Ahem...I was wrong.
Most nights, my hard-workin' man would come home sometime between 8:00 and 10:00 PM. If we were lucky, he would say good night to the kids, and spend a few minutes helping Joshua with his math homework (cause Momma + math = no bueno!). He would only then eat a late dinner (reheated in the microwave, long after the leftovers were put away and dishes were already done) and relax for maybe an hour before hitting the sack. He was frequently too tired to do anything else.
Now...don't get me wrong. I'm thankful...VERY thankful my husband has a job. A good job that pays enough to support our family of 7 and enable me to be a super SAHM (lol). He doesn't have to travel at all, and isn't putting himself in mortal danger (like my brother) to provide for us. I haven't forgotten to thank God every day He has blessed us with steady employment.
But Lord have mercy, the hours are long people. Really long. We're talking til 1:00 or 2:00 AM. Some nights, after David got home, he'd spend a few more hours burning some serious midnight oil. Once, he stayed at the office and didn't come home until 5:00 AM (yes AM, not PM). I witnessed my husband wearily coax his tired eyes back onto the computer screen after I kissed him goodnight and went to bed many other nights. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciated his efforts to give us all enough attention, especially to the kids, knowing he'd be up for hours after we all were fast asleep.
There were times he'd call and say he was staying late at the office, and I knew I'd be making dinner, giving baths, tucking kids into bed, and doing numerous other tasks...running solo. It was hard to offer that up...I'll be the first to admit it. But I also knew God was answering my prayers. For so long, I'd asked for the grace to be more patient, more loving, more giving with my time. And God decided the perfect way to show me was to give me the opportunity to run solo...many, many nights so I could do just that. I didn't always do the best job...there were a couple of nights I was SO tired and frankly, cranky with the kids. But I promised myself I wouldn't cry over spilled milk. I was going to smile, get up, and do it all over again the next day. I told God I would do it all with the best possible attitude, and give as much love to the kids and to David as I humanly could.
And you know what? It really wasn't so hard after a while. I just rolled with it. The kids drove me just as crazy, and David still came home late. There was another revelation though...I realized I had to be careful an not get angry with David on the weekends. We all got used to Daddy being gone, so when he was home, it felt like he was "in the way," although that was certainly NOT his intent. Poor guy! Just saying, "I love you" several times a day when he was home helped to diffuse that resentful feeling I sometimes had. We tried to spend one night a week together...and we actually squeezed in 3 date nights last fall...just to try and get some precious time together.
Now that the Christmas season is over, David's not so busy at work. All too soon, it's going to pick back up again for about 8 weeks before Easter. But for right now, we're going to enjoy this period of peace...the calm before the storm. I'm going to praise God my husband came home at 6:32 PM, sat down with us, ate dinner while his soup was still hot, gave the two youngest kids a bath and put everyone to bed before sitting down to give some attention to the dog (yes...even the dog needs some love!). 'Cause I'm tellin' y'all...it was nothing short of a miracle.
