Tuesday, September 11, 2012

on romance

last week i had a very mopey girl moment of feeling sorry for myself because i could not think of the last time my husband bought me flowers or wrote a sweet love note.  i love my husband so very much, but he is not exactly the epitome of romantic.  in my silly pity party (there are people dying all around the world and i am sad that my husband hasn't brought home roses in a while), i started thinking of romantic things i had done for him lately...
i didn't get very far (does laundry & sweeping the floor count?).  relationships take work, and while the best friend/parenting partnership part of our relationship is good, i think we both could put a little more effort into the romantic side.  to ignite the romance, my sweet neighbor, shalini, offered to watch our boys so james and i could go on a little date night.  her only condition was that i had to put effort into the date--not just go out to dinner.
i started by putting a handwritten note (with a chocolate chip cookie from chick fila--so delicious if you have not tried them!!) in james' car while he was in class asking him if he would like to join me for a date that evening. then i picked up an 18 pack of his favorite beer and put it in the fridge at home for a post date treat.  for our time sans kids, we took our rackets to the tennis courts.  while this may not seem uber romantic, it is something we loved to do together when we first started dating and something we hope to do more. 
we had a great match and even though i was up 6-5, james ended up winning 8-6.  we shared many laughs, a good workout and  two hours of free entertainment!  after a quick dinner at mcalisters, we picked up the boys and enjoyed an evening of relaxation together.  i think james may have been more excited that i thought to buy him beer than plan a date night, but either way it was a success!  since then we have both stepped up the romance with little things like him bringing me a dr. pepper this afternoon on his way home.  i'm still waiting on the flowers, but i'll smile thinking about our good times on the court... :)
(all photos from 2006).

5 comments:

Unknown said...

This is such a great reminder! I find myself forgetting to make an effort too...life gets so busy and we can so easily take our husbands for granted. Even though we know that we love them unconditionally, it's always nice to give them a little reminder too. Thanks for inspiring me to do something romantic for my hubby TODAY! :-)

Erin said...

We've all been there, and this is a great reminder to be a little more selfless. What a great post!!

kacie said...

yep i agree, i think we all get these same feelings and you are definitely not alone, and i give you props for voicing them! zach's parents gave us the love dare book from the movie fireproof a long time ago, i'm thinking we should actually read it! ha. i found another devotional that looked good, made you take dates and plan things for each other, can't remember the name of that one right now!

Krista said...

I felt like I was writing this post. :) It was good to think a little to myself that I need to stop having a pity party for the lack of romance from my husband and try and think of how to be romantic towards him. I just don't always feel like I have much left in me after a long day with the kids.

Carol Layton said...

Good reminder..it's so easy to let days/weeks go by without doing something intentionally romantic. Love the idea of doing a sport for a date!