Fare Thee Well, COVID19, and Thank You!

 Fare Thee Well, COVID19, and Thank You!

    It's been a difficult year with COVID19. To be honest, at the start of the lockdowns I actually enjoyed being home all the time. There were so many things in this home I wanted to change that I found myself making a honey-do list. Who knew a year and a ton of $$$$$ could take a house from "just okay" to fabulous? New paint, new floors, remodeled bathrooms, wood stairs, stucco repairs, and landscaping yaye!! Fun stuff! Financially, yes, it was a bit yuck. But, something I noticed was each finished update brought a little burst of joy into my life and increased my love for my home. I found myself not just loving my home, but falling in love with my home again. 

    Another thing I was able to do during COVID19 was stay focused on our family. I watched our son and our granddaughter grow together as siblings. I also experienced additional growth in my relationship with my husband as we spent even more time together just being us. Little things brought me bursts of joy and similar to my house being updated, I felt like I was falling in love with him again. I don't think we really did anything different with each other, rather, I think we just got to actually spend the time and enjoy the things we already did for each other. For example, prior to COVID19, new flowers meant they were put in a neat vase and watered until they were found dead a week later and then tossed. During the COVID19 lockdown era, the flowers were clipped, put in a vase, watered, taken out and reclipped, put back in the vase and given fresh water, taken out and reclipped again, put back in the vase and given fresh water, and repeated until they actually were almost too short to cut and wilting. That routine was a different kind of care. In fact, I actually had the time to love and take care of the love my husband was expressing to me in the form of flowers. That gave me joy, but it also brought him joy. In fact, I did not even have to point out the flowers were the same purchased almost a month ago. He noticed! COVID19 gave us both time, more time to love and more time to take care of the gifts right in front of us... us.

    I am glad we were able to grow together. Here are some things we do daily that we were able to do better just by giving the "thing" more time and attention. First, our "I love you's" were not just an item before "see you later". They actually became "I love you, would you like to go on a walk at the volcano later?" and then a mix of "awesome, okay, then it's a date, see you later, be ready by 4" ... Our bad day conversations weren't just "what happened?" ... "Wow, that is terrible"... Instead they became "What happened?" ... "Wow, that is terrible, well what can I do to help?" and usually some additional conversation with helpful resolution involved. Last, another noticable change was in our prayers, both morning and night. They weren't just "I prayed with him" or "pray for me".. They were actually "I am praying this meeting will go well for you today" or "we are praying for your employees-- please let us know what we can do to help".. Additionally, we actually held hands and prayed for one another more. 

    COVID19 really did take a lot of 2020, but for us, we were lucky to grow through it. We got a lot done in our home and without even trying we got a lot more done in our relationship. The CDC lifted the mask mandates today. I will not miss the masks when the time actually comes and we do not have to wear them anymore, BUT I will miss the extra time we got to spend all together in our home, loving on our home more, but also loving on each other more and making the most of us. 

    Fare thee well, COVID19, and thank you!


Here are some ways to love your spouse through language: 

I love you.

One thing I really love about you is....

One thing I miss most about you when you work all day is...

I appreciate it when you...

You make me feel special when you...

Thank you for loving me!


Proverbs 17:1 Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting and conflict. (NLT).

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