Happy Birthday to My Kitchen Knight

Yesterday was my hubby’s birthday. We had a great time celebrating this weekend.  We ran a 5K, worked on a project around the house and watched the Notre Dame game in peace while our kids were with Jer’s mom, went apple picking, and just spent good time together as a family.

And, because I can, I have to take a moment to tell you all about how great my husband is.  Of course, there are many, many reasons, but there is one thing that my man does that puts him head and shoulders above the rest in my book.  He is my Kitchen Knight.  He does the dishes and cleans up in the kitchen after dinner, at the end of a long day, way more often than I ever do. I’m telling you, he is awesome!

Back when I was pregnant with Brenden our house was on the market.  I was so tired at the beginning of my pregnancy, like many newly pregnant mamas are, and especially after chasing around an active 1 year old all day.  We worked really hard to keep our house really clean and well maintained because we never knew when we would get a call asking for a last minute showing.

So, there were many nights, after a long day with Kaelyn and busy with getting ready for a showing, or something else, that I would look at the state of the kitchen and just be so overwhelmed. I hate doing dishes anyway, much less when I’m pregnant and exhausted. So, I would tell Jer that I just needed to go to bed, and that I’d deal with the kitchen in the morning.  He would nod and encourage me to go to sleep.

So, I would drift off thinking about how overwhelmed I was with the kitchen, and the house being on the market, and having to keep it spotless, and having a one year old, and being pregnant, and not knowing where we were going to live after our house sold, IF it ever sold, and…  yeah, I was a little bit stressed at the time.  Then, I would wake up in the morning and reluctantly walk out to the kitchen, thinking there was a huge mess awaiting me, but instead, it would be totally clean and taken care of. Dishwasher ran, dishes washed and put away, counter and table completely cleared and wiped off.  Oh my, it was the best feeling.

One time while we were visiting my parents I told my mom that it was like I had a kitchen fairy.  I would go to sleep with a disastrous kitchen, and wake up to a beautiful and clean one.  She looked at me kind of funny and asked if I should think of a better term than kitchen fairy, since it was, after all, my hubby.

So began my fond referral of him as my kitchen knight.  And you know what?  He didn’t stop after our house sold, or after we moved in to this house, or after I had Brenden.  He still regularly cleans up in the kitchen. Usually now, I’m still up with him, working on the computer or on something else around the house, but he still takes care of it.  Sometimes, I help him by drying off dishes or wiping down the counter and table while we just talk about the day and what’s going on in our lives, but he still takes care of most of it.  I am so blessed and grateful for this man who not only goes to work every day and works hard for our family, but who comes home and is present and involved with his children, and helps me around the house. I could not ask for a more amazing husband and father for our kids.

J, I love you! Happy Birthday! Thanks for being my knight in shining armor!

P.S. If you want to know a little secret, my wonderful hubby is going to write a guest post later this month for my blog! So be to stay tuned for that!

Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers