connecting with my cop

These are some lunch bags that Daisy and Luke have decorated. The brown one says:

This is Daddy's lunch
I miss you!

I discovered early on in our marriage, especially when the babies started popping out, the power of the leaving a note in his lunch- method. Sometimes when I think back on how long we've been together and married, I cut it in half and consider that the amount of time we've actually been together because I hardly see the guy. Since I'm married to a man of few words, it's been hard to know if he likes me doing this or not. But I found out recently that he's been keeping all the lunch bags that the kids have drawn on and the notes that I slip in. The magnets that he wanted for his locker? He wanted to put some of our notes up and pictures of us. Hey, I think HF likey!

Why I think this is a good method:

1. He has a little something to remember us while he's at work each day.
2. I get to busy the kids with an art project while I make HF's lunch.
3. Sometimes the note is our only conversation that day.
4. The kids see HF's role in our family and his important place in our lives.
5. This strengthens our bond as a couple and as a family.
6. It's something fun to do. A little tradition we've created.

HF doesn't always get a paper bag lunch. I guess it depends on the kind of food he is taking with him, but I like to do a little thing called Bento- if I have time! When the kids don't decorate a lunch bag, they might slip in a coloring page they've scribbled on, or give him a paper full of their favorite stickers. Now me on the other hand, this is what I do. And just so you know, I don't do mushy notes. Well, maybe sometimes, but here is an example of the notes I have left in HF's lunches.

• "Officer, I got your pizzas!" in reference to this movie, written in permanent marker across a gallon ziploc bag filled with, you guessed it, pizza.

• "Tina, you fat lard, come get some DINNER!" from Napoleon Dynamite

• "Roses are red. Violets are blue. If you don't eat this lunch, I will come back for you", complete with menacing child-like drawing of a rattlesnake.

• I wrote, "you are AMAZING" and had words that describe him using each letter of the word amazing. Right now I'm wondering what in the world I came up for the letter Z. . .
  

• I wrote things we had done that day and funny things the kids had said.

I'm sharing all this because I think we all have to come up with ways to connect with our cops one way or another. This is just one little way I have found that works for us. I'm wondering what little things you all do each day (or however often) to find meaningful ways to connect.