A little bed makeover

I think I may have mentioned the nesting thing earlier- I have this drive to redecorate my house right now that Dave claims is related to pregnancy- who knows, maybe he's right. Anyway, I have a number of little projects I've been working on lately. And some bigger projects. I've been working on a furniture refinishing project that, like so many projects, has become much more involved than I thought it would be at first. It's nearing completion though, so I'll post pictures of that soon. We're also re-painting the room that will be the baby's this weekend, so I'll take some before and after of that too. This latest project was much easier and more fun- all it involved was several years of indecision, 2 stores, and some cold hard $.



This is what our bed has looked like for a couple years. I've been wanting to get a duvet for a long time now, because I love how you can take them off the comforter to wash. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find one I liked in my price range. A couple weeks ago, I went into this store called HomeGoods and saw the duvet I wanted. I thought about it for a minute, then left without buying it since I was in a hurry and didn't want to make an impulsive purchase. Later, I regretted it- it was just what I wanted and a reasonable price. When I went back a couple weeks later, it was gone. Bummer! I found out that there is another HomeGoods store in the area, so yesterday Ellie and I went to the other store and Viola! there it was. My beautiful duvet. Now it is on our bed with a fluffy comforter inside and I love it.

True Romance

Dave and I were discussing romance yesterday. This is a fairly common topic for us, it seems to come up every several months. Dave actually brought it up this time, joking about all the cutesy descriptions of valentine romance people posted out there in blogs and on facebook. That irritated me of course, since I want him to do more of those cutesy valentine romantic things that everyone else talks about. As we were "discussing" this, I informed him that he is good at doing thoughtful things, but not so good at doing romantic things. He asked me what I consider "romantic" besides flowers (which is another story entirely). "Well...breakfast in bed." I said. "You planning a date and getting a babysitter." "Anything that requires you to put some thought and effort into showing me that you care." So then I thought about this topic for a while. Like I said, Dave is a pretty thoughtful guy in many ways. He often takes care of Ellie in the mornings so I can get a few extra minutes of sleep. He'll run out at 10pm in bad weather to get me Panda Express if I tell him that I've had "the noodle dream." He complements me on how I look even when I feel like a fat cow. So, should that be enough? Is there a whole lot of difference between romance and thoughtfulness? Should I be grateful for a husband who loves me, takes care of his family, is responsible, shares my beliefs, and makes me laugh, even if he's not so good with the mushy stuff?

After thinking this over, I came to this conclusion. There is always room for improvement in any relationship. I think in any happy relationship though, you focus on your partner's good qualities and strengths, not their weaknesses, and hope they do the same for you. (This does not apply to pre-marriage relationships; for those I suggest you keep your eyes wide open to the good and the bad.) At any rate, it's enough for now that we keep working towards a relationship that's strong in what really matters. So, you enjoy those flowers-I've got some Orange Chicken waiting.