When I first set up my new blog, I was very intentional about the fact that my “identity” here is mom and teacher. But, every time I see that description, I feel a little weird. Maybe I’m over-thinking (I probably am), but I feel like the natural assumption from that is that I’m not a wife. And, while I tip my hat (seriously) to all the incredible single, working moms out there, I am very much not one of them. In fact, I consider my role as a wife even above my roles as a mom and a teacher.
So, why the intentional absence of talk about my husband and marriage? Because, to be frank, that’s how he prefers it…
Jeff is my high school sweetheart, my best friend, my rock, and my complete opposite. Read: He isn’t as in to sharing his whole life on a public forum as me. 😉 Out of respect for him, I really limit what I share about his life and our relationship. Yes, sometimes that’s hard for me (because I like to tell all the things), but that is the agreement we have reached about blogging and what we both feel comfortable with. *To be honest, as Sam gets older, I will probably blog less and less about him too for the same reasons. This blog is for telling my story… We all have our own, and deciding when and how it is told, is an individual choice.
Photo by Paul Calhoun Photography – June 2007
That said, here are a few relevant details about my main squeeze:
– We started dating when we were seniors in high school, but I pretty much loved him from ninth grade on.
– We went to college in two different states and dated long distance for 3 years. (We studied abroad in London together in the Fall of our Junior year, and I graduated one semester early and moved home to be closer to him.)
– We got married in 2007 in the church I grew up in (the same one my parents married in 25 years earlier) and our wedding was – hands down – one of the best days of our lives. It was seriously SUCH a celebration of God’s work in our lives and our relationship and the incredible people that had walked beside us up to that point.
– Jeff is calm, patient, rational, responsible, smart, handsome, and (mostly) laid back – remember, I said my opposite. 😉 He is a loyal friend, a hard worker, a spiritual leader, and an amazing dad to Sam. He is my voice of reason (for example: he keeps me from writing things I will regret later) and has brought a sense of stability, rest, and peace to my life that I didn’t even know I was missing before we got married. In short, he’s the best thing that ever happened to me.
– We believe that marriage is hard work, but that it is absolutely worth it. I wouldn’t want to be on this adventure of growing up, parenting, life with ANYONE else.
– There is a 99.5% chance that you will NEVER see a “Thoughts from a Blogger’s Husband” post or anything of that sort here. 🙂
Hope that clears up any confusion & gives y’all enough sap to last a while. 😉 Have a great holiday weekend!
E
P.S. Have you visited my updated FAQs page yet?! This question (and several others) was first addressed there. 🙂
Thanks for sharing a little peak into your relationship with Jeff. It is so cute that you “loved him from ninth grade on.” That’s a long and special love! Though, I must say, I never assumed that your role as a wife was unimportant or less of a priority than mother or teacher. I think I just understood that it wasn’t the focus of your writing here for whatever reason (privacy being a darn good one).
When I first started blogging, my idea was that my blog would mostly be a running blog and I would post about mommy running and getting in shape as a mom, and Tom (who’s a super-talented runner) would post about hardcore running stuff.
But then I never even mentioned it to him 🙂
Occasionally he talks about posting an informational post (like when he moved my blog to WordPress — it was really involved and required a lot of work, so he considered a “how to” post) but he never gets around to it.
My prediction? He’ll never do a “blogger’s husband” post either.
I did once tell him that if he snuck and wrote a post for me on mother’s day or my birthday that I would actually die of happiness.