December Daily #10 ~ Caring and Continuing

My husband is a Christmas humbug. If we skipped Christmas, I am pretty sure that he would be fine with that. He feels like so much of it these days is manufactured by companies to sell more stuff. His love is of a more practical type and that is what I want to tell you about today. When Ethan is working in Denver, or at least within reasonable driving distance from our home, Larr gets up super early to be with him so that he has company at breakfast and a good word to send him off for the day.I am very touched by this display of affection and caring.

At the end of the evening the night before Larr measures out the right amount of Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats and toasts them in a pan on the stove. This deepens and improves their flavor in the morning. I love the way that it makes our home smell. I think I like it better than the smell of cookies or bread in the oven. He then soaks the oats in the pan that will be used to prepare them in the morning. Larr also sets out the entire breakfast. He places the nuts and dates in the bowls, measures out the coffee, sets out the plates, he even fills the drinking glasses. It is a tidy, lovely scene that makes me smile every time I see it. He does this in part because they will get up at around 4:00 a.m. or 4:30 a.m. to ensure that Ethan will be fully fueled and awake before he hits the dark, icy road to work.(We are finally emerging out of that week long cold snap. A week ago it was about -5 degrees outside in the morning.) He also does it to show Ethan that he supports him in this cold, often thankless work. Ethan has been working 7 days a week, 12-16 hours a day for most of the weeks since April. He is tired and sometime at his wits end. The entire crew is. The combination of the extreme cold weather we have been experiencing and the expectation that they were supposed to be done with the job more than a month ago has set most, if not all, of them on edge. We hope that this show of love and support is helping Ethan cope with adjusting to the grind of the adult working world and the harsh conditions that he works in. We are proud of how hard he is working and how dependable he is.I am also proud of how steady and practical my husband's love is for our son.

(This photo does not actually have anything to do with my topic today, but I think it is such a lovely display and a photoless post is really rather boring, so I included it just for fun.)

(These photos are from displays from Bliss, a wonderful store in Boulder. I think the woman who creates them has a good eye for color, texture and balance. I'll bet her home is really lovely.)