The hot water heater stopped heating my water on Tuesday. We kept waiting for it to heat back up, after our power loss, due to a nearby tornado touch-down on Tuesday night…but it didn’t. Just as my husband and I were about to leave for a short anniversary trip, we came to terms with the fact that the schedule we were facing upon returning was not conducive to the absence of hot water in our bathrooms (or dishwasher or washing machine). My man is a handyman par excellence. He is NOT a man who can easily pay someone else to do, while we are gone, what he knows how to do himself. So, of course, we didn’t go. (It was my decision, in view of my schedule, for the record. (It’s podcast week, company week, and a four-day-out-of-town trip week, for me.)
In the process of pulling out the dryer to get to the hot water heater, lots of debris (a.k.a filthiness…and lost socks and tiny toys) emerged from beneath the dryer. A sealed envelope with two love birds hand-stamped on the front emerged in the pile of dust and miscellanea. I opened the sealed envelope thinking, “I wonder what nice note I failed to give my husband…and on what anniversary?”
The envelope contained the following weeklong checklist I’d prepared for a homeschooling moms’ retreat several years back. It was a list I needed to see while watching my husband laboriously removing that mammoth water heater from that small laundry hall, while I was working like crazy, too, and bemoaning the fact that I was home rather than in the Westin, where we had planned to be that night. Maybe someone else needs the list, too.
Here’s the handout the ladies all received that year in their own sealed envelopes. Of course, this list is adaptable to all Christian families, homeschooling, or not.
For your faithful provider:
Pick a week in each month and complete the following: Then start over and pick a week next month. Fill your year with gratitude and respect for this man who makes your homeschool possible:
Massage Monday–Massage night. You’ve got this. Just five minutes while you thank him for making your home school possible.
Text Tuesday–Text him, out of the blue, about how your world is better because he is a faithful provider.
Wisdom Wednesday–Wisdom WonderMan. On the way to Bible class, thank him for trying so hard to be a wise spiritual leader. Then at Family Bible Time, have each child thank God for a wise dad who makes good decisions for your family.
Thanking Thursday–Thank God. Spend five minutes in prayer while the kids are napping or working. Spend the whole five minutes thanking God for various attributes in that man that are good and praying about the ones that are challenging.
Fix-up Friday–Fix-up day. Do casual Friday, but still make it a make-up day or a good-hair day. Think about three things you love about your husband’s appearance and tell him throughout the day, even if you have to text him.
Suggestive Saturday–Suggestive day. Say or do one sexually suggestive thing. This will make his week-end. I know you can think of something he would love!
Servant Sunday–Servant day. Have each child think of one special thing he/she can do for Dad that day, and help him accomplish it. Coffee in bed. Brag on his sermon, if he is a preacher. New socks in his drawer. Money out of piggy banks for a milkshake on the way home from Sunday night services. Teens should write notes of appreciation or send a meme or GIF that says as much. Give dad a baseball that has a sweet note about how he’s the MVP (Most Valuable Parent) in the child’s world. Girls can ask dad for a breakfast date on Monday morning. Just be creative!