Sweat & Sparkle

I look forward to every weekend, but today, I am particularly impatient for the work day to end and for our weekend to finally start. We have a lot going on this weekend, so it will flash by in the blink of an eye.

The most important event this weekend is Father’s Day. Let’s see…this will be something like the 17th Father’s Day I will celebrate with my husband. For the very first one, the kids were so tiny, so young. Now they are all adults, and one is a father himself now, too.

I am grateful for all of the events, twists, and turns that caused my path to cross my husband’s. When we first met, we had no idea that someday we would be married, sharing a beautiful house together, talking about roses and petunias for fun, still going strong nearly two decades later.

Over the years, it has been my honor and my joy to watch my husband with the kids. I laughed when they wrestled on the living room floor, tried to keep up when they played tag on the playground, and smiled quietly when they snuggled up on the couch together. I have enjoyed listening to them play, my husband making up voices for dolls or stuffed animals or action figures, and I have been graciously served pretend tea at countless tea parties.

When one of my brothers came to visit recently, he commented how my husband looks at the kids, and how obvious it is that he loves them very much. I know what he means. I see it all the time, too.

His love for the kids has been weaponized by jealous, ugly trolls, but I have to point out: for them to deliberately target the kids means they also know, in their empty and bitter hearts, what a good father my husband is. There is no point in attacking something he doesn’t care about.

No matter what insult or abuse has been hurled at him, he has never lowered himself to respond in kind or drop to that level. He has told me more than once that just because others are hateful doesn’t mean we have to be. I have seen him remind the kids to call these very same people on holidays, encourage them when they didn’t want to, when it would have been easier to return fire. He protected the kids from that in our home and gave them a peaceful, safe sanctuary that they truly needed.

This weekend, I hope my husband knows how much he is loved, appreciated, and needed. We are going to sleep in and then make breakfast together that morning, and I am already looking forward to it. He loves to cook, and we end up dancing around each other, sharing the stove, tasting each other’s masterpieces, and just having fun.

Happy Father’s Day weekend to my husband! Words can’t express what he means to us, but we will give it a shot.