Employee of the Month

Two weeks ago Brian came home and happily shared how is boss gave him an achievement award. This meant he got to pick out a gift card to the place of his choice for all the hard work and overtime he's been doing.

I was happy for him. Glad to know he was getting good feedback at work, knowing it meant alot to him.

Then Thursday night rolled around. He came home late from lifegroup and told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands.

He handed me a big box.
It was a leaf blower!

To put my excitement into context, I've been wanting and talking about a leaf blower for about two years. Fantasizing about effortlessly cleaning out all of the 5 years worth of leaves from our yard, flower beds, and driveway. Don't get me wrong, I've done my time using brooms and rakes. But I've never been able to stay on top of the massive job since we have so many trees and babies.

Me, lookin like a natural.

But what meant more to me than finally having the power of wind in my hands was when Brian told me, "I used my gift card to get you this. I'm giving you the achievement award because you've been working alot harder than I have taking care of the kids. You deserve it."

Let me just tell you. As a mother who was tapped out all of her reserves of effort, patience, physical energy, and everything else in my being, this was monumental. It meant someone had seen the struggle. It meant encouragement. It meant my husband giving significance to my daily purpose that, although given alot of lip service, oftentimes feels second-rate.

But let's not forget it also meant I GOT A LEAF BLOWER!

I tried it out between bouts of stomach flu this weekend. Me and LB are gonna be good friends.