Socks on the Floor

When Thomas and I were first married, naturally, we had lots of adjustments.  Besides college, I had never shared a room with anyone; and I had certainly never shared a bed with anyone beyond spend-the-night company.  I think that I had the idea that since I was learning to become a marriage and family therapist, that our adjustments would be fairly easy, and we would do great and not have that many problems.  

Well, in the big picture we really didn't have that many problems, but I don't think that my being a marriage and family therapist had much to do with that!  One of the biggest problems that we had was company.  We love having company over, and we always have, but in the beginning every single time we were getting ready for company to come over, we would get in a huge fight.  We wouldn't yell and scream, that's not our style, but we both knew we were in a fight.  It took us a while to figure out what in the world was going on.  The problem?  Thomas started helping me clean.  Yeah, I'm the crazy wife who would get offended when her husband tried to clean.

There were other things that we would each do that would bother the other.  I think the one silly thing that really bugged me was socks left on the floor.  Now, I don't just mean socks on our bedroom floor, they were everywhere.  Every single room in the house, even the kitchen!, would at one time or another have socks on the floor; usually several rooms at once.  This strange habit of Thomas' taking off socks then getting another pair rather than returning to the old pair, and leaving the old pair laying around, really boggled my mind.  (I'm sure he could tell you several of my strange habits that make no sense to him!)

He's grown much better about it now.  Usually I only find them in the bedroom, and then I just pick them up and put them in the dirty clothes basket.  Later he'll get out yet another pair of socks to wear and not even remember the first pair, or second, or third; but hey, they're contained to one room now.

This week, I haven't had to pick up any socks off the floor.  Thomas left for Siberia on Monday, not to return until Sunday.  By Wednesday I realized that all our floors were sock-free.  I thought it was funny that I noticed it, but what can I say, I'm strange.  But I think that I'd rather have Thomas home.

And I can't wait for Thomas to come home!  For some reason, this trip has been more difficult for me emotionally.  Too bad we'll have company the same day he gets here.  He won't be here to help me clean; so I can get mad; so we can fight; so we can make up.  Although, thankfully God has helped us grow in that area!  I love my husband!