Marriage Monday: The terrible, no good, very bad week

I mentioned a few weeks ago we had just arrived home from vacation. What I didn’t tell you was that the week that followed was not a good one for my husband and me. Not at all. First of all, we got home about 6 p.m. on a Sunday night. The week and a half before had been glorious- perfect weather, a few days at Disney World, several days at the beach. No responsibility. (well, besides keeping 4 kids happy and healthy!)

Meanwhile, it had been flooding in Houston. Thank goodness our house was okay, but our yard was a muddy, muddy mess- some parts still had an inch or two of water covering them. As soon as we got back in the Houston city limits, it started raining again. That was just a foreshadowing of the week to come! 🙂

I also woke up the morning we were driving home (10 hours) feeling very sick. Allergies, sinus infection- something like that. I just felt yuck and then to sit in the car for 10 hours with 4 kids, all worn out from vacation? Not fun.

Monday morning I woke up not feeling much better. I had TONS of laundry to do, tons of blog work to do, tons of bill paying to catch up on, and so on. My older kids had their homeschool co-op to attend Monday afternoon and thankfully my younger kids were staying with a friend for the day as they do each Monday so I was able get some rest. But the rest? It just put me further behind.

Instead of accepting that and moving on, it just set me off for a bad week. Tuesday I felt horrible again. I went to my Bible study in the morning but then slept again the whole time my little ones were napping, again losing my productive time. My husband was super busy catching up on work, too and then I ended up getting angry at him because he wasn’t able to help much. (Never mind that I chose to stay at home with my kids! This was not a time for rationality!) My husband is a pastor and many of our church members (who are also dear friends) are moving away in the next few weeks, and that all hit home that week too. Just NOT a good week.

By Friday, I was a mess. My little brother and my sister and her family were coming in and we were getting ready for that. I still felt bad and was just worn out. I chose to be very harsh with everyone in my family instead of asking for help. (Also turns out I had a little touch of PMS going on 😉 )

Why am I sharing about this? Well, I just think it helps to know that other people struggle. Ben and I have a strong marriage and love each other deeply (by God’s grace!), but sometimes, we have an off day. This time, an off week. It wasn’t really until the following Monday that we sat down and talked about everything. I was much more rational and calm by then and he wasn’t as stressed about catching up on work.

I know sometimes we can sit and look at some else’s marriage (job, family, house, whatever) and get envious. This can lead us to so much discontent. That is NOT how I want to live my life- I want to feel truly grateful for the gifts I’ve been given. Even when they’re not perfect.

And sometimes? It takes a terrible, no good, very bad week to remember that.