We’re coming to the end of our five glorious weeks of freedom. Derek starts his new job on Monday, and Tommy and I will have a huge adjustment not having Daddy around 24-7. Even though this past month has been Derek’s “last hurrah” before the unending grind of firm life, he has done such a good job driving us all over the country, participating in the moving process, hanging mini-blinds (a particularly selfless act), getting up at 6 am with Tommy so that I can sleep in for one more week, and generally being a great dad and husband. Thanks, Dear!
So I’ve been inspired by Derek’s acts of service and by rereading For Women Only. I want to challenge myself and my married girlfriends to excel in showing appreciation and love to our hardworking husbands. I know that we all show love to them by keeping food in the pantry and putting meals on the table, taking care of the kiddos, keeping up on laundry (well, most of the time), and doing standard wifely things. But can we spend a week brainstorming and sharing ideas for how to go beyond the basics every once in awhile? I’m calling it Operation Appreciation, and I’m especially calling on Anna, Bethany, Emily, Janet, Kelli, and Kat to blog in the next week or so about your favorite way(s) to honor your husband. I’ve been inspired by all of you in the past, and here’s my chance to gather a bunch of good ideas in one place. (To the rest of my married girlfriends–leaving comments here, sending me emails, or telling me that you have a blog and sending me the address would be great, too!) In a week or two, I’ll gather up all the ideas here for all of us to see.
I’ll start us off:
1) My friend Kristin has challenged me that the most important room in the house to keep clean is our bedroom, because that communicates to Derek that our relationship is my top priority (after God, of course). Making the bed every day, keeping laundry off the floor, and moving unfinished projects to other areas are all ways that I try to do this. Of course, many of us naturally tend towards tidying up the public areas of the house first because we want to present a clean front for guests. Obviously a welcoming home is good, but so is a welcoming bedroom! (Full disclosure: Right now, our bed is made, but there are random miniblind parts, curtains, valance rods, laundry baskets, batteries, bills, and other moving-related stuff hanging out in our bedroom. Clearly this is a work in progress for me!)
2) I try to make sure that I have chocolate chip cookie ingredients on hand at all times. When Derek’s worn out or feeling down, I’ve found that a fresh batch of cookies works wonders. I pretty much pick up a bag of chocolate chips every time I go to Aldi, just in case he comes home from work and asks for dessert. In fact, composing this blog post in my head earlier today inspired me to whip up a batch of cookies tonight!
I’m looking forward to reading everyone else’s ideas…
[…] it’s been a lot longer than I promised for my follow-up to my first post on appreciating my husband. Somehow morning sickness got in the way of my great intentions… But I’ve been […]