My Everyday Valentine by Susan Tuttle

Valentines may be passed, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still talk about love, right? I was lucky enough to marry my BFF fifteen years ago. We’ve known each other for twenty-five years, but we were “just friends” for a good ten before realizing somewhere along the way we’d fallen in love. How lucky are we?

Now, when you’ve known someone that long, sometimes you think you know everything about them. You can almost fall into a rut. After we married, we had kids and settled into a nice pattern. When the kids reached school age, we decided we were going to homeschool. Things moved along nice and steadily. Hubby worked, I stayed home with the kids, and all our responsibilities naturally rolled into those categories. Which meant, laundry, grocery shopping, house cleaning, cooking…etc. were all mine. Along with schooling the kids. And I happily made our house into a home.

Then God called me back to writing.

Oh. I’d always wrote, it seemed as natural as breathing. But God was calling me into the ministry of writing and pushing me to devote more time to it. To seriously pursue it.

Now, with no agent, no book contracts, and only the whisper of God urging me forward, how was I to explain that to Hubby?

Luckily God paired me with the right man.

Because if you’re a writer, you know that there can be days or weeks where laundry doesn’t get done, the cupboards run bare (McD’s and pizza nights become the norm), and the house is destroyed. That’s been the biggest change for both of us—redefining our roles. It’s an act in constant progress, but we seem to be doing it. And over the past two years as I’ve learned to balance this calling and our home life, Hubby has supported me. Through every step, with no concrete outcome achieved, Hubby has been nothing but encouraging, prayerful, helpful…excited for me. Even when he comes home to a messy house or receives another call to pick up take-out.

And that is beyond lucky, that is blessed. That is love. Our lives have changed, and he’s changed along with them, learning to navigate this road with me and encouraging my dreams—even helping me to attain them. They are never too large, never too inconvenient, and never too far out of reach for him to push me towards them.

He’s my biggest support system.

He’s my everyday Valentine.

Now, it's your turn. 

Does your loved one encourage and support your writing?

How do you balance your writing and home life?

Dora here. Recently, Susan signed with Linda Glaz of the Hartline Literary Agency. 
Congratulations, Susan! That's definitely a "concrete outcome!"

Susan Tuttle is a homeschooling mom of three who is crazy about coffee, dark chocolate, and words—both reading and writing them. Combine that love of words with her passion for leading women to a life-changing encounter with Christ, and you’ll find her crafting Inspirational Contemporary Romance stories laced with humor, love, and healing transformations. When not cheering on her Ironman hubby, chasing the family dog, or tackling complex math problems to teach her kids (yes, even the second grader), you can catch Susan at her blog, Steps.