Marriage. Balance and Routine.

After being married for nearly 5 years, Luke and I have fallen into a lovely routine. For example, I cook and he does the dishes. I schedule our social calender and he lets me schedule our social calendar. For how wonderful this all is there are things that drive me a bit cray sometimes, for instance, the tasks that fall to me and would simply never get done if left to Luke. Oh, and when I say drive me crazy I mean in the “I’m actually fine with it most of the time crazy” sort of way.

Making the bed. When we were dating Luke made his bed everyday, always, and I left my bed unmade everyday until right before I was about to climb into it to sleep, now I have realized I make the bed everyday and Luke never bats an eye in the beds direction after he leaves it in the morning.

Washing laundry of any kind. He asked me the other day if I liked that I could just throw some of his new shirts into the dryer instead of laying them out and I told him, no that I would like it if I didn’t need to worry about his shirts because he was washing them himself. Somehow over the course of the last 5 years we have switched from us doing laundry equally to him doing all the laundry to me doing all the laundry for the whole family.

Taking the trash out to the curb on trash day. Why is it that when he is the one actually opening the garage to leave the house he can’t take the garbage cans out to the curb before he leaves for work?

Scheduling doctors appointments. We’d pay for insurance and never see the doctor if it were left to Luke.

Vacuuming. Our floors would never get vacuumed if I didn’t do it. Never.

Putting away the dishes piled in the sink after they have dried. Nope instead of putting away the dishes when they are dry he piles more freshly washed, and wet, dishes on top of them.

Toilet paper. If it weren’t for me my house would be the one with empty toilet paper rolls hanging on the holders and full rolls of toilet paper sitting on the counter in every bathroom.

I am not perfect, this I know. This is now a bash my husband post. More like a “holy crap I just realized I am the only one who ever does this” pot. In the sake of fairness there are some things that would never get done if Luke didn’t do it.

Also, I am pretty sure that most of what is on my list is there because I stay home with Maddy, while the things on his list have always been and will always be on his list no matter his work outside of the home status.

Washing the car. If left up to me I might wash the exterior of the car once or twice a year and maybe vacuum and wipe down the interior once a year, luckily Luke gets the cherrios, juice spills and caked on mud taken care of far more often than that.

Organizing the garage. It might drive me crazy that he spends time organizing the garage when there are parts of our actually living space that could be cleaned but at least thanks to him we have a space to park and I can easily find things like sidewalk chalk and garden trowels.

Organizing the basement. Just like the garage organizing the basement drives me crazy. Um hello husband how about you come vacuum the living room instead, but admittedly during the cold, windy and wet winter months it sure was nice to have ample space for Maddy to ride he tricycle around down there.

Update electronic devises. It is weren’t for Luke things like “security updates” for the laptop or “system updates” for my Blackberry would never happen.

Filing records and paperwork. I hate filing, actually I much prefer piling. I know my piling skills make Luke crazy. I guess it’s good that he takes me perfect little piles of paperwork and such and files them away, otherwise my house would end up unintentionally looking like an episode of hoarders.

I love my husband and he definitely balances me out. Our routines have come to life because it is what works for us. This weekend he randomly decided to detail the entire kitchen, which included putting the dried dishes in the sink away and it was like he had surprised me with a big bouquet of flowers…only better. I just have to remind myself that just because I am doing all the laundry doesn’t mean that I am do all of everything.

So what sort of routine have you fallen into with your spouse? Do these routines drive you crazy or do they make your life easier? Would you say your balanced?