A Month for Your Marriage {Week 1 - Togetherness}

I'm taking a little break from playing "catch up" to join Jen at Into Your Will for her "A Month for Your Marriage" link-up.  When I read Jen's post about the first challenge of the month, I thought to myself, "This will be EASY; Alex and I love doing things together!"  I guess that should have been my first clue that God was about to send me a slap across the face and a healthy does of humility to boot...

It's true though, Alex and I really do love doing things together.  One of the worst parts of me working while he's a stay-at-home dad is having to leave for work in the morning knowing that he and Bennett get to spend the whole day together, even if Bennett is a tough kid and things are certainly not rainbows and sunshine while I'm away.  However, I thought this challenge was going to come naturally to us and in some ways it did (we didn't intentionally do anything different), in others it really didn't.

We've been gearing up for Bennett's first birthday party which is coming up next weekend.  While we moved into our new house at Thanksgiving, we had never gotten around to hanging anything on the walls.  It didn't bother me so much at Christmas/New Year's, but almost 3 months later, I have been itching to make the place our own. 

In an effort to get the ball rolling, we left Bennett with my Nanna on Sunday afternoon and shopped like crazy for some fun new touches to our décor, especially to dress up Bennett's room that had never actually been decorated in our old house (I was pretty much anti-baby room for a while, but Bennett's turning a year old now and I felt it was time).  We really had a great time, but we hadn't found exaaactly what we were looking for, so we went back out again on Monday evening, as a whole family.  Alex had put dinner in the crockpot on Monday morning, so we were good to go with heading to Lafayette for a few quick stops after work and before dinner. 

I work "late" on Tuesdays, which meant we weren't going to get anything more done on the house that day, but we did manage to squeeze in a family walk and hosted dinner for my dad.  It was nice to take a brain break on the decorating front, though.  And, I think I was able to read a chapter for school while Alex put Bennett to bed, but that's neither here nor there...

Wednesday, we went on another family walk (love those), shared dinner, and then...I failed at life and became apparently ungrateful, mean, and demanding toward Alex.  Obviously, I never mean to hurt his feelings or make him feel like anything less than the amazing man that he is, but nevertheless, it happened.  I try to be understanding of his emotions toward being stuck at home all day, but I'm not perfect and I am not always as respectful or gracious toward him as I should be. 

At this point, I don't remember much about Thursday, but I do think we managed to share another family walk that evening.  Friday, Alex took one for the team by keeping Bennett while I went to dinner with some girlfriends (after being with him all day as well).  We had talked about squeezing in a walk again, but time just didn't allow it.  BUT, we did end the week on a good note when we asked Nanna to keep Bennett again so that we could attend a performance of Annie Jr., put on by the new Christian Youth Theater group in town. 

I think I said some other things to upset Alex again this morning, which means I REALLY need to take Jen's next challenge to heart and work hard at building him back up again through affirmation.  And if you read all the way through...mad props to you.  Here's a picture of Alex and I from a trip to the local pumpkin patch way back in 2014.  Apparently I also need to make a point of getting a recent photo of us together for next week's post.  :)

Have a good one, ya'll!