Why am I blogging?

I hold no illusions of being a gifted writer.  My English professors and an ex-boss with a god-complex made that clear.  Whenever I write I have to bust out the thesaurus to find new ways to express "great" without actually using the word seven times in the same paragraph.

I also know that I am not channeling Solomon as I don't possess infinite volumes of wisdom that I must share with the world.  Anything of value that I'm currently spewing likely came from the Bible or is inadvertently being borrowed from others.

Certainly, I am not blazing the trail to perfect-husband status.  I mess up a LOT!  When our kids make mistakes, Heather always says "Oh well...we're not raising Jesus..."  She's definitely not married to Him either.

So if I don't have a lot to share and my choices are as much "warning label" as they are "instruction manual", why am I blogging?  The long version...

Monday through Friday I get up, spend a little time with God, go to work, come home, eat, spend time with the kids and their activities, and after they're finally in bed...plop down and share an hour or so of "quality" time with my wife.  Sound familiar? 

I've gotten much better about starting my day with God.  I need to get up earlier and extend that time, but I'm making progress.  However, pretty much out of necessity, the time Heather and I have together during the week seems to come last and is hardly "USDA Grade A Prime".  About a year ago I realized Heather was settling for the stuff on the sale rack, fast approaching its expiration date. 

There's wasn't much I could do about the week, but I could set aside some special time for her during the weekend.  What to do?  We've never had much success growing a money tree.  Even when one starts to grow, we somehow manage to kill it.  So it had to be relatively cheap.  We also have three young children...the first ingredient in romance right?  Scooby Doo moment, "I'd have made it, too...if it wasn't for those meddling kids!"

Tight budget...a weekly babysitter was not an option.  Kids...limited privacy.  I was going to have to be creative.  Friday night became "Family Night".  The kids could stay up late.  Saturday night became "Date Night".  The kids would go to bed early.

Each Saturday I'd ask Heather what she wanted for dinner and I'd make whatever she wanted.  We'd then share a dessert and watch a favorite show or movie, or just talk.  We've had a year or so of wonderful dates, which have really strengthened our marriage. 

I've mastered her favorite two or three meals, which is great...but it's also bad.  Those dramatic drops and loops on the roller coaster that at first are so thrilling tend to lose their effect after a dozen laps around the course.  I've created a whole new cycle of monotany.  What once was special now has now become mundane.

Last week Heather convinced me to watch "Julie & Julia" with her.  I tucked my tail between my legs, turned in my "man card", and hit the Red Box.  My expectations were low, but I was surprised as the movie was a revelation.  In the movie, Julie feels trapped in a job that at first seemed to present the opportunity to save the world, but over time proved to be held in check by bureaucracy.  Then Julie discovered Julia Child's cookbook.  She decided to cook all the recipes in the period of one year, all the while blogging about it.

As the movie progressed, scenes from Julie's life were interspersed with those from Julia's nearly half a century before.  I won't spoil the ending as the movie is definitely worth watching, but ultimately Julie found her purpose and rescued her marriage, largely as a result of the introspection she gained during her blogs.

So as usual, I am going to borrow a good idea.  Date Night will continue.  But it will gain new life as I will be cooking something different each week.  Perhaps Heather has not yet tasted her favorite meal.  And, I hope to become a better husband as I blog about our Date Nights going forward.