special date and home decorating

Sometimes Fred and I get in ruts:

"What do you wanna do?"
"I dunno. What do you wanna do?"

I think most people do. But whatever, it happens and I can recognize it pretty quickly when it does. Fred likes repetition more than I do (except with movies because I cannot count how often I've seen The Lorax or Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 and 2), so he doesn't tire of 'same old' as quickly as I do. It's a constant struggle that keeps both of us from resorting to negative traits, and keeps us striving for better.

One thing I like to change is our home decor. I get tired of that chair there, or that lamp there, or that coat of paint. In this case, it was a loud color for our walls. I also was wanting a separation from our dining area to our den.

We went with a shabby chic motif which really seems to fit our home. It's not new, and many things about it are imperfect, but we kind of like messy life... weird.

We also would like to repaint our den eventually, and I keep going back and forth with two colors. One day I will make up my mind. Honestly, I probably won't get to it until after harvest season, but it may take me that long to make up my mind anyway!

But back to the subject of ruts, recently I decided to spice up our evenings one night by cooking Fred dinner.

"Haha, very funny."

No, seriously. In our marriage, and especially over the past two years Fred and I make supper together (which is amazing fun) well over 60% of the time. And when I do make it all by myself *puts on big girl pants*, it's not a showpiece like this dinner was here.

I was inspired with an idea from my cousin, so I decided to make our at-home dinner date have a real restaurant-feel. I had Louis Armstrong playing (umm... yeah he was kind of the best), mood lighting, newly decorated dining room, homemade sourdough bread with dipping oil already on the table, and I served him like a waiter (which, by the way, was super fun).

It was a surprise, so I told him to dress up, and I wore heels, which made it 'for serious'.


We had pink champagne, homemade bread, shrimp and grits with asparagus, poached eggs (actually I boiled them since I didn't have a way to poach) and a roux to top it off.

For dessert? Chocolate fondue. If you're going all-out, might as well gain a few pounds, right?

And after dinner he took me by the hand and we danced. It was all very romantic.

P.S. Lemon pound cake is the best. I could probably eat the whole thing myself.

Anyway, there's a little glimpse of our life - however uncommon (because no, sadly we do not eat like this all the time...). Dance, be merry, eat chocolate, and redecorate!

 I love you, Fred! Life with you is awesome. <3