Note: This is the second in a series about our 20th anniversary year. If you want to read the background on that, go here.
It’s a regular February day….the mundane task of putting away laundry falls to me. I go about the motions like I always do: opening drawers, depositing piles of clean and folded laundry, repeat until the basket is empty. Sometimes the best surprises pop up in the mundane of daily life. Today, I open my personal clothing drawer and pause to find a brochure resting inside. A lovely hotel is pictured on the front. I pick it up and leaf through it and read the included note. My dear husband has purchased a winter package and arranged it with my mom to watch our little ones. We are going away overnight for Valentine’s Day and my birthday!
A few years later…..
I stumble groggily down the stairs. My husband leaves the house at 5:00, and I try to wake most mornings to pack him a lunch and kiss him goodbye before crawling back into bed for another hour or two. It’s my birthday, but that coherent thought hasn’t crossed my mind yet as I struggle to wake my brain enough to see him off to work. At this point, it’s another regular February day, overtaken by work and laundry and caring for toddlers. But sometimes the best surprises pop up in the mundane of daily life.
I reach the living room and see my husband, who should be dressing for work, lying on the couch. Confused, I ask him if he’s okay. He just smiles and says he thinks he’ll stay home today. I’m even more confused. My husband goes to work in every condition from the flu (his) to the early stages of labor for our children (mine). The only thing that brought him home was a kidney stone, once (his). And of course, late labor when he came home to drive me to the hospital, four times (mine).
Bless him, he can see I’m not coherent yet. So, he tells me he’s staying home for my birthday. And we’re going to the Home and Garden Show where we will get my birthday present. A lot to take in at 5:00 on a February morning! We go back to bed for awhile since 5:00 really is too early to celebrate anything. Then, we head off to a lovely day together. My birthday present? A brand new VitaMix, which is my favorite kitchen appliance ever since I inherited an older version from my grandmother. Yes, sometimes the best surprises pop up in the mundane of daily life.
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After 20 years, our kids are a little more independent and easy to pass off to Memaw. To recreate my two favorite birthdays, we left them a little earlier and picked them up a little later, so we could have our “day off work” spread over two half days. We bought the same winter package which gave us a stay in the same lovely hotel, buffet dinner and breakfast included, plus a scavenger hunt of sorts at a bunch of little Amish country gift shops which each gave us a free item. So, a bit cheaper than the VitaMix (which I still use and love) and a lot of fun exploring new shops.
Even with older kids, the best part of a day and night away from home as a couple is the conversations. We can talk about anything without the kids overhearing, interrupting or misunderstanding. I love living life with this man, and I want to cultivate these adventure and conversations and loving gestures and flirtations every day. Because, you never know….sometimes the best surprises pop up in the mundane of daily life.