I was supposed to work every single day and night this weekend, but due to the tendency of our participants to register late, my employment cancelled both events, leaving me with my first full weekend off in months. So Friday night, Hawk and I went on a date. I hadn't realized how long its been since I got all dolled up to go out with him alone (maybe my birthday?). I pulled out my deep burgundy velvet jacket and coated my eyes in grey shadow, just like the make-up artist at our MOPS group told me to do. He noticed right away. And we took off for Cafe Hollander, a brilliant danish restaurant we used to patronize regularly when we lived on the East Side, and the Social Network at a local theater.
I was giddy. All night. Giddy like a school girl. Now, mind you, I am also 8 months pregnant, and people just love to ask me if I'm having twins. (Isn't that sweet of them?) So let's just say I'm huge out front. There I was, giddy and huge. Poor Hawk. We chatted about baby names, labor and delivery needs, godparents, funny stories, and split a frites cone with some spicy aioli sauce and a big soft pretzel, devoured our savory meals (mine was a Maple Chicken Vinaigrette Salad), and a few cokes. It was an almost 2-hour affair before we drove the 30 min to the theatre (really, it is local!), gorged ourselves on decaf diet Pepsi, buttered popcorn, and Junior Mints.
We spent the weekend preparing for the Little One and winterizing the house. Hawk cleaned gutters and windows while I secured the ladder base and read about labor relaxation techniques. We unpacked and washed the last of the baby's things. Went shopping for anything we needed for our hospital bags. I readied the first parts of the baby book, made a little baby artwork, and we picked a few artsy items from etsy.
Later, I spent some time on a new blog I found, todaysletters, in which this great couple writes each other a love letter every day. I love the idea--very simple and less mushy. So I suggested to Hawk that we do something similar every Sunday. He agreed.
Here is my letter from yesterday:
Dear Hawk,
Thank you for completing house projects with your shirt off. Added bonus: I now have curtains and a soothing-safely-shaking-baby-
Love,
devote:
We've heard so much about how having a baby will take our attention away from each other. We are sure this is true, so we've made our devotion and desire for each other central in our nightly prayers, part of our weekly conversations, and the motivating principle behind every apology. I couldn't believe how good it was to go on a date! I confess, I thought "date nights" were overrated and unnecessary, but even the act of preparing myself physically for our date was a sacramental action. An offering out of deep love. We are hoping that our efforts before Ace arrives will pay off when Ace is here. We've decided:
- that Wednesday nights after Ace arrives, we're going to make dinner together
- that Sunday's we're going to write these little letters to each other
- that once weekly, we're taking a 20-minute walk together, just because
- that we already know some of our temptations and tendencies that would lead us to put each other second in our family, rather than first
- that we can do something good with this knowledge
- that Hawk will pray for and practice patience, and I will pray for and practice being slow to anger
Happy Monday.
icj,
~j
Wow wow wow! I admire what you 2 are doing. It will make a big difference! At 20 yrs together, and 11 with kids, I can vouch that the marriage relationship can easily get put on the back burner.
ReplyDelete