r-e-s-p-e-c-t

i just have to brag about my husband for a minute. this past month has been incredibly stressful for us. we've been working on the condo to get it ready to put on the market, looking for a house to buy in a city that we haven't seen for 3 years (we're going house-hunting in person soon), and just dealing with daily life. although i work really well under stress in the office, i don't think i deal with it so well at home. sometimes, the hubby will find me cleaning the toilets at 11:00 at night just because i suddenly find it more important than going to bed at a decent hour. or, in the midst of trying to de-clutter and move things to storage, i'll start baking cookies because cookies are safe and make me feel like the home is in order even when it is not (ever seen disney's "the kid" with bruce willis? i love his line, "safety in sandwich... safety in sandwich"). thankfully, i have a husband who can sort through all of the stress and create some sort of order for us both. he wrote out a detailed plan and schedule for getting everything completed on time and has even given me tasks to do every day. that might sound pretty old school to you guys, the husband giving his wife "chores," but i asked him for it because i knew that we needed to be on the same page and i really needed him to be in charge and take the lead. i am a very driven, type-a person and the last thing we need right now is for me to take over and start giving my husband orders. and that's just what i would do if he hadn't done it himself. i have a renewed respect for my husband after these past couple of weeks and i just get so excited about it and want him to realize how amazing he is.
here's a more direct example of how amazing he is: the living and dining room have been in disarray because we had to pile all of the furniture in the middle of the rooms and cover them with drop cloths while painting the walls around them. yesterday, the hubby didn't have to go into work until late in the afternoon. do you know what he did all day long? he cleared the kitchen countertop, cleaned up all of the paint supplies, put all of the furniture back in place and even rearranged it in a better layout than before that makes our living room look so much bigger and emphasizes our really cool screened in porch. i got home from work and it was such a relief to have everything back in its place and in order. whew. he even waited for me to get home from work before he left, just so we could sit down and relax together for a few minutes. what a guy...