His quiet way

He has the day off.  I have a few clients scheduled.  I find myself caught up in the hustle and bustle of the normal morning, throw in a load of laundry as I walk by, feed the kids breakfast, all dressed, and ‘Oh? You want to drive him to school?  That would be fantastic, thank you.’  He did a few things on my honey-do list and after a few hours with my client, since the kids sort of run free, the house needed a little TLC.  After a break catching up on a Tivoed show and lunch, I find myself scrubbing baseboards.  We have contractors coming to finish installing them and they need to be cleaned.  This is when it started.  The grudge.  Each time I walked through the office and by Jason with earplugs in watching a movie, my mood got a little darker.  The sweatier I got while scrubbing, it seemed the more unkind I became.  He caught on pretty quickly this time and asked what was wrong.  It was then I realized my selfishness.  And since communication is the key to a happy marriage, I simply said, “I’m not sure why, but when I take a break it’s fine, but when I am working and you are taking a break, I feel like you need to keep up and work too.”   Here’s the kicker.   He simply smiled, turned and walked away.  No back lashing.  No claiming it’s unfair.  No calling me out on how stupid that is.   Just a smile that he knew I was learning.