my own advice

So I decided to take a little of my own advice last night. It had been a long day and I was needing to feel attractive - my workout shorts and old tank top just weren't doing the trick. I decided to move dinner out to the deck and had Ella set the table with a pretty tablecloth and a candle. I changed into a casual summer dress, put on make-up & earrings and even a little perfume. Wow - I felt like a new woman! Finishing dinner prep no longer felt like a chore but rather a gift I was giving my husband who was yet to arrive. He came home to a candle lit dinner outside, soft jazz coming from my ipad and a wife excited to see him (this is SOOOOOO not our norm). After dinner we cleaned up and after putting the kids to bed I decided the special evening didn't have to end there. We open a bottle of wine, got an old quilt and headed back outside to simply be. Totally unplugged from life - just me, him and a bottle of wine (he later added a cigar - the tale-tell sign that he's relaxed). We sat and talked about random things. We laughed. We were silent. We listened to the crickets and soaked in the cool summer night. It was a little bit of heaven on this side. A gift of our time to each other....and so worth the effort it took to create.