Momservation: You know it’s love when he’ll smell Daisy Fresh until you remember to buy more Old Spice Pure Sport.
♥ ♥ ♥
So Hubby and I are Empty Nesting hardcore now. It’s been four months of getting used to this quieter nest and new routines. There are definitely perks:
- A house that stays clean when you clean it
- Less laundry and food shopping with cheaper grocery bills
- Dinner for two is easier
- Your kids’ day-to-day problems are no longer your problems
- You can walk around naked and don’t have to lock the door
But reality has hit that unless we go visit our kids at school, we won’t see them now for the next five months. And then it will only be one of them because the other one is staying at school this summer.
Which means that after nearly 30 years together, it’s like Hubby and I are dating again.
It’s true.
We have so much time on our hands after work and on weekends that we find ourselves frequently asking, “So what should we do?”
It’s been great slipping back into the role of dating each other. Coming up with new ways to have fun together. Revisiting things we used to enjoy doing together, just the two of us, or with friends.
But it’s more than just rediscovering that we still really like each other after all these years.
With our world slowing back down from the warp-speed pace of raising kids, it’s allowed me to notice something wonderful in the quiet details of our lives:
This guy still really loves me.
Sometimes it’s not the grand gestures in a relationship that remind you how much someone loves you. It’s the subtle moments of genuine care and affection, done without reward or even realization, that make a person feel truly loved.
I had one of those moments yesterday. One of those “A-ha!” moments where I thought: You know someone really loves you when they do something like that. I didn’t want to forget the sweet gesture so I wrote it down. And then I realized I could write a lot more down, so I did.
I decided to share them so others might be inspired to create their own lists. Because you might not be Empty Nesters yet, but it’s coming. Then all you have left in that quiet house, hopefully, is the love that once filled it with children.
Remind yourself of that love now so it won’t be so hard to rediscover when your main source of conversation moves away.
What’s on your list?
Here’s mine:
YOU KNOW IT’S LOVE WHEN…
- He laughs and takes the long way home when you turn up the volume and say, “This is a fun song to sing at the top of your lungs!”
- He gets up early for work to go buy donuts to leave you for your birthday breakfast.
- He gets up early on Saturday to go get bacon and eggs so he can make you a traditional weekend breakfast.
- He doesn’t just bring the paper to the porch before he leaves for work, but puts it in the door handle so you don’t even have to bend over to get it.
- He puts up all your pain-in-the-butt outdoor Christmas decorations because he knows how much you love Christmas.
- He lets the dog have his spot in bed a little longer at bedtime so the two of you can finish snuggling together.
- He never says no when you ask him if he can stop by the store on his way home from work.
- He doesn’t make you move from his favorite spot on the couch.
- He lets you pick the movie every time.
- He brings you lottery scratchers when you are sad.
- He lets you have the end of the steak.
- He turns on your side of the electric blanket so it’ll be warm when you go to bed.
- He never complains when you spend way too much on flowers at the garden center.
- He always says, “I know you wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t” when you tell him what a great deal your shopping items were.
- He patiently lets you show him all the cute things you bought when he doesn’t really care.
- He just chuckles and settles in when you give him the long version of the story once again.
- He thinks all your mom’s funny sayings are cute too.
- He lets you shower first so you don’t have to be the one to squeegee the shower.
- He washes your car after he’s done his.
- He’ll do errands with you because he even enjoys that time spent together.
#EmptyNesting #YouKnowItsLove #SubtleMoments