I think about my husband a lot. Sometimes it’s funny, the things I remember about him.

When we first got married, my husband had this terrible habit of leaving his dirty socks on the floor. I would pick them up and put them in the hamper every day, but I would make sure and tell him that he had left his socks on the floor, again. It was a small thing, but it was a consistent thing. He just would not pick up his socks! If I told him to pick them up, he would pick them up. Otherwise, I don’t know how long they would have lay there for – perhaps forever. He always put his clothes in the hamper, just not his socks.

Incredibly, this went on for a very long time. We had our first child about a year after we got married, so I was picking up a lot of other things besides his socks. Three years later, we had our second child, and I continued to pick up socks and other things left lying around by my family. I was a stay at home mother at the time, and was busy taking care of my family and home. Those were good years. But, still, my husband left his dirty socks on the floor. Did I ever stop mentioning that his socks were on the floor? No I did not. But I kept picking them up.

Then, after we had been married for seven years, something amazing happened. There were no dirty socks on the floor, at least none that belonged to my husband, that is. He started picking up his dirty socks and putting them in the hamper! And he did it every day after that, faithfully. I never had to say another word to him. It’s a mystery to me why it took seven years for my husband to pick up his own socks, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Maybe someone out there is disheartened because their loved one will not listen to them, or will not comply with their very reasonable wishes. Maybe give it seven years? It worked for me.