Memories | Special Little Things

All of our memories do not need to revolve around the entire family.  There are some memories that should be made exclusively for you and your husband.  After all, when the children grow up and leave us, we want to have a storehouse of memories that we have built with our husbands- we do not want to find ourselves with a total stranger or, worse yet, unable to build memories without our children being present. 

Yes, a getaway vacation for just the two of you will definitely make a memory, but we need to make year long memories around our simple times as well.

When we first were married we lived about a mile from my parents.  One evening we got the "wonderful" idea to ride our bicycles to their house and surprise them.  They were surprised... and so were we! A mile on a bike going up hill was much harder than we thought it would be!  My dad drove us home that evening, and our bikes stayed in their garage for months.  We still laugh about that memory and our newlywed ambition.

Brian has dedicated Tuesdays in our home as "No TV Tuesday" (I totally love that!).  We spend our time playing outside, reading, playing games with Addie, coloring, and hanging out in the playroom- all things we do every day but without the interruption of the TV.  After Addie goes to bed, we read together, talk (this week we brainstormed about boy names since we have the girl's name covered), and play card games.  I also bought a 2 serving chocolate cake for us this week. Unfortunately, we shared it on Monday night instead of Tuesday night.  Next week, I won't be telling Brian what I picked up until Tuesday so we can share our special dessert on Tuesday night :) 

We are currently reading the book Love Life for Every Married Couple by Ed Wheat, M.D. and Gloria Okes Perkins.  I would highly recommend this book (no marriage wants to ever find itself in a rut, a "comfortable" place, or at a status quo- we always want our marriages to become better and more beautiful over time)... however, for obvious reasons I will not be doing a book club on it :)

We also played Skip-Bo, one of our all-time favorite games.  This was one game we played countless times before Addie came along.  Brian always won... but Tuesday night was my turn to shine!  Oh, may I gloat for just one minute! It was awesome!  Okay, moving on....

I am Hispanic.  Brian is a mix of many European nationalities.  I have no idea if there is any Irish in him, but there is definitely none in me.  Did that stop me from celebrating St. Patrick's Day or making a memory for us?  No way!  Addie and I dressed in green, for dinner I made Reuben Casserole (one of Brian's favorites which can be found here), and I bought one slice of St. Patty's Day decorated cheesecake for him and me to split.  (Edited note: We all ended up enjoying it. A little person heard me mention "cake" earlier in the evening and was all excited about it.  How could I say "no" after that. Somehow I have got to figure out how to make my special desserts work out for the two of us- keeping them to myself until the time is right is probably the solution. Just goes to show what a growing and learning process this really is!).

Even something as simple as writing a note on a napkin and slipping it into his lunch box is guaranteed to make him feel special.  Brian has a box where he has kept all of the cards and notes I have sent with him to work. 

Simple memories can be made with you and your husband on any day of the week, no special reason is necessary.  So go on, have fun coming up with ideas, and make a memory for just you and him.