i heart my husband

I so rarely give Nate a big thumbs up for being a caring, kind, providing, adorable hubster, so I hope you’ll bare with me while I get mushy for a moment. On Sunday, I spent the day with my aunt and Vivi’s cousin. I brought the girls along with me, so Nate had the whole day to himself. You could call the day to himself an early, albeit slightly unromantic, Valentine’s present from me. But when you have two Tasmanian devils, you’ll understand the allure of “me time.” Trust me, it’s a good gift.

When I got home, I discovered to my surprise he had given me a similarly unromantic but no less treasured gift right back again. He cleaned the bathroom! I’m not talking about the twenty-minute frenetic wipe-down I normally do; this was the ONE HOUR, down-on-your-knees, lovingly scrubbing every square inch of the floor and walls clean. Now that’s taking husbandry to the next level. I have no idea what got into him, or what he cleaned it with, but the bathroom smelled heavenly. I shut the door behind me and just sat against the wall of the tub for a few minutes, peacefully taking it in. Ahhh, domesticity. It’s the little things that give you happiness, no?

We have spent the past two evenings with no TV, no books, no magazines, just a fire and a good meal and conversation. It can be difficult to keep up the us part of our family, and I appreciate holidays like Valentine’s Day, as commercial and overdone as it may be, to remind us to pause and remember to take time to honor and nurture our relationship.

As for the food we ate during this marital courting, I have been into braising everything I get my hands on lately. Our CSA is providing us winter cuts of meat, which typically love a good braise, and then of course the tough winter veggies also love the low and slow cooking method. I’ll post my Sunday supper recipes soon. Tonight we are looking forward to not so much to dinner (brats and kraut) but to dessert: rum bombs and Florentine cookies from our favorite bakery. Mmmmmm…

Happy Valentine’s Day!
xoxo
~J