My wife is part of a wonderful organization called
Jamberry. They produce, and she sells,
really cool nail wraps. If you haven’t
heard of Jamberry or nail wraps, head over to her website and check them
out: https://laurajane.jamberry.com/us/en/. Every year, Jamberry has a conference where
all the consultants and Jamberry home office staff get together and do whatever
it is that they do. There are speakers,
informational updates, and all sorts of things, but I think it is mostly a
giant slumber party. (Just kidding,
well, maybe a bit.) Laura always comes
back fired up and ready to sell more Jamberry and equipped to be a better team
member and team leader.
While she is away “conferencing,” I get to be Mom and Dad to
our three wonderful boys. We have all
heard the old saying “Don’t judge me until you’ve walked a mile in my shoes,”
right? Well, I’ve walked a week in Laura’s
shoes. I’ve learned some things that I
hope will make me be a better husband to my dear wife. Here they are, in no particular order:
- There is never enough time. I don’t care what day it is, or what is planned, there is never enough time to get everything done that needs to be done. I found myself juggling so many things at once that I’m really surprised that nothing got dropped, at least, nothing that I’m aware of yet. There was one day in particular that I got so busy that an errand completely slipped my mind. I was drifting off to sleep when I sat straight up in bed and exclaimed “PHARMACY, I forgot the pharmacy!”
- Someone always needs something. I honestly thought that once these kids got to be school aged, they would be pretty self-sufficient. NOPE, not even a little bit. It was the week of a million and one questions. Where are my shoes? What’s for supper? What are we doing tomorrow? Why are you running around in circles? What’s it like on the moon? Do I have to do my homework now? Where are my jeans? Don’t get me started on laundry. Good Grief!
- There is no downtime. Even when the kids are asleep, you’re still on duty. I’ve checked on the boys more times during the night in this week than I probably have in the last 6 months. I can’t count the number of times that I would get up and just stand outside their room to make sure they were okay—knowing that they would be, I just had to check. Even when they were at school, in the care of their teachers, I would constantly be thinking “Are the boys ok? Did they remember their lunch?”
- Much of the day revolves around meals. I had no idea. Really, I had no idea. Meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. And then, you have to do it the next day. These kids expect to eat every day! My goodness. Have to make sure they get their breakfast before school (it is the most important meal of the day), make sure they pack their lunch (and take it with them), and then have something planned for supper that they will all like (HA!) or at least tolerate (more likely). So much of my day was taken up just making sure that everyone had something to eat and that we had what we needed for the next day’s meals—or at least I knew what needed to be picked up at the grocery store or what needed to be taken out of the freezer to thaw.
- There is a need for me time. It was Thursday morning. I had dropped the kids off at school and went to work. I shut the door to my office and sat down and reveled in the quiet. Just me and my thoughts. It was nice, for about 5 minutes, and then my phone started ringing. Those few minutes helped me center my thoughts and did help me through the rest of the week.
These are just a few of the things I learned this week
walking in my wife’s shoes. There’s
more, but I think these are the highlights.
I plan on applying these lessons learned to my relationship with my
wife, to hopefully be a better husband and partner to her.
Laura’s on her way home now.
I’ll be picking her up at the airport after a bit. I can’t wait to see her beautiful face
again. She is the glue that holds our
family together. She makes all this look
easy. And to think, sometimes, she does all
this in high heels!
