Last month I gave myself a special challenge. To do something extra special for my husband, every single day of the month. I didn’t think it would be that hard, I’m a planner after all, but I have to say that it was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be, or perhaps bad timing, or perhaps just a tad too ambitious. Last month, I also participated in NaNoWriMo, which meant I had to write 50,000 words towards a novel, I wrote an additional 41,000 words for current nonfiction projects, and was busy with work as late November is all about students preparing for the end of their terms. But I had wanted it to be November because that is husband’s birth month, so ya know, I was going to go through with it anyway.
To be clear, simply being sweet, spontaneous love notes, texts or expressions did not factor into the “extra special thing” each day. If it did, then I would have been fine and done more than thirty things. But those are kind of the norm, and while I make sure to do them, those expressions matter, I wanted something extra special outside of that norm. Like special dinners, dates, movies, token gifts, poems, treats… you get the idea. By the end of the month I only accomplished sixteen out of thirty: two movies, a day trip, four special meals, a token gift, birthday surprises, special desserts/treats, and other fun stuff. And while it really was supposed to be a “at least one thing every day” kind of thing, it turned out to be more like two things every three days. What can I say; dinner and a movie go well together.
I think that this probably one of those times my friends, and my husband for that matter, would say I was over-thinking it, and maybe even overdoing it. But as much as my husband means to me, it seemed like one special thing every day for a single month was the least I could do. And really it was kind of selfish, because I love surprising him as much as (maybe even more than) he likes to be surprised. I get a serious rush out of it, and have kind of gone all out before… (Kidnapping my husband, kidnapping him again, a parental ambush, and let’s not forget when I bought him a laptop – his was on the fritz so he really did need one for work – and had everything installed with a birthday cake background on the screen, or the grill waiting for him outside another year, which would not have been possible without his brother who was the best coconspirator I could have asked for.) Again, I tend to go all out. Even mundane gifts are made fun with him having to hunt for it in a sweet little scavenger hunt.
I thought that my husband deserved a month. More than, but a month was me being practical. And I mean, all things considered, sixteen things isn’t terrible, but of course if I ever do this again, I hope to be more organized and better about making sure to get to whatever is planned each day regardless of what else is going on or what may come up. I’m fine with this year kind of being a trial by error, it helps me figure out what I need to do differently and assess how to make it work if I ever do this again.
And it’s fine. I mean December is pretty tame, so I’ll just have to make sure to do fourteen more things (some were originally planned, just did not happen) before the holidays. 😛
I can’t remember what gave me the idea to do “A Month of You” but I’m glad I did. And dear husband, if you’re reading this, feel free to do the same sometime. Actually, I’d be good with even a week! 😉
-DMW
