Paddle Time

It suddenly hit me today:

            I miss my husband.

    Why does it feel like I hardly ever see him anymore?

Ahhh . . . I know . . .
                               Because I don't.


We have flipped a complete 180 from seven months ago
                          when we were together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

A change like that can be pretty shocking on the system.

We used to share . . . well . . . everything:

a job, an office, the smooth flat plastic thing our roll-ley chairs rolled over, a computer, a file cabinet, books and Bibles and ideas and deadlines.  We did puppet shows with Dude-eronomy, the chicken.  We planned youth group and children's sermons and trips and events.  We'd take turns -- back and forth -- during our teaching times with the kids.  Heck, we even used to share a cell phone!  (it got kind of difficult calling each other on it . . . )

For nearly five years we were always together.

Together at church, together at home, together with our kids, together grocery shopping (well . . . that was before kids, I guess.)  Together at staff meetings, together at dinner.

    That, my friends, is a lot of together.

And it was good.

                (and challenging at times . . . as you can imagine)

    But really good.


And now we are like ships passing in the night . . . or day . . . or afternoon.  Well, all three, really.  He's with the kids while I'm at church; I come home and he takes a nap, or a shower, or what-have-you.  I go to bed before he comes home.  I'm nearly gone before he wakes up.  With three different shifts in a week, he's coming and going and . . . now it's time for transition again with a new schedule at work.

It's kind-of crazy.


But we're sneaking in moments here and there -- (thanks to the fabulous advice from some of our MOPS moms . . . )

• Date Night is now a game of crib (as in, the card game) & making our grocery shopping list together.  
• And Date Day is lunch out and grocery shopping together -- which is just as fun as before kids, when we shopped together all the time.

Pretty wild n' crazy, eh?

As a MOPS mama shared, 

        Marriage is like sitting in separate canoes.  If you're not paddling toward each other, you'll drift apart.

Grab those paddles!  (and don't forget the grocery list.)

Paddling . . . back when we worked together at church.