Okay, 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 inspired to start thinking seriously about this again.
First of all, the girltalk blog is currently doing a great series on the Proverbs 31 woman. I love the Mahaney women, and this post on making my husband my first priority is superb! Even more to our purpose, they suggest ten ways to “do him good” this week! Really, add them to your rss (or, if you refuse to have an rss feed like me, put it on your favorites).
Secondly, I’ve gotten some great ideas from some of you girls… Emily shared three great posts on showing appreciation to Nelson in the kitchen. Derek and Nelson are on the same page when it comes to food, and I know that creating special meals (whether it’s food I’m not a big fan of (like red meat or bacon), special treats, or good old comfort food) means a lot to my hubby. Anna blogged about how she strives to encourage David in many day-to-day things…having him come home to a clean home (even if that means dinner’s not quite ready), cooking meat (do I see a trend?), sticking to the agreed upon budget (I love how that communicates to our husbands that they are good providers!), and respecting his need for down time. What I love about both friends’ insights is that they are manageable in my daily life! With a 20 month old and first trimester woes, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with anything beyond the basics–food, laundry. But the way I do the basics can still communicate to Derek that I adore him and appreciate the hard work he’s doing for us every day. I can’t make him gourmet breakfasts before work (he gets up at 5:45; Tommy and I are more like 8:15ers), but I can buy those breakfast meats he loves and do a “breakfast for dinner” this weekend.
Thirdly, some of you have been inspiring me for some time in the area of cherishing our husbands at lunchtime! Bethany had a great post over a year ago about preparing Keith’s breakfast and lunch as part of the “predictable pattern” of their morning routine. Just because acts of service are routine doesn’t mean that they aren’t romantic! I also was privy a few years ago to some great bragging about Kathy’s lunch-packing abilities (in probably the only situation that I would describe Rob Driscoll as “cute,” he explained soon after their marriage how he used to be jealous of Derek’s packed lunches, and now he was an object of envy in the law school cafeteria!). I used to relish packing Derek’s lunch, but somehow things fell off this past year, and I’d completely given it up by the time he started his new job here. Just thinking about this issue has made me more determined to save Derek a couple minutes in the morning by taking the time to pack his lunch the night before. There are still some days when the smell of opening the fridge is just too much for me and I have to leave it for him, but hopefully the gagging stage will be over soon and I can make it a habit again!
As a side note, Derek didn’t know that I was composing this post this week, but he brought home some lovely fall flowers for me last night. I love that he is already showing Tommy how to cherish a wife! I hope I never take for granted the sweet things that my husband does to encourage me.
I know there are still lots of great ideas out there…fellow wives, please continue to share via your blogs or comments about ways you’ve found to show appreciation to your husbands. Thanks for keeping me inspired in this aspect of Proverbs 31 womanhood!
What’s with the partial feed??!?? Do you hate those of us with RSS?
I don’t have anything to add to this discussion (yet), but I am keeping them in mind for later…
Oh, I just thought it was pretty long and not of interest to everyone…I’ll keep you in mind next time–you and Derek are probably my only readers with RSS…