Home Projects and Other Marriage Counseling Topics

Projects

As any normal wife does, I often peruse Pinterest in search of home remodeling projects for my husband to do - don't want him being too relaxed or anything.

The kids' bathroom mirror has always bothered me - it's one of those boring builder-grade mirrors whose holders have gone rusty from time and depression.

See how sad and boring this is? Unfortunately, I didn't get a shot before we painted the walls. They went from off-white to gray.

See how much nicer it is with the frame? Listen, I know that people are supposed to take pictures with natural light and not that glaring artificial light. But this is really all I have - no one promised you a high quality blog.

When I saw the ideas on Pinterest, it was full of pictures of easy projects and happy couples. Get a couple pre-cut pieces of molding and throw it on the mirror with a squirt of liquid nails and be done before your blushing bride can cut the freshly baked coffee cake.

Matt, however, looked at those projects and decided against a fast, cheap fix that won't look as nice and may indeed fall off the mirror and conk unsuspecting guests in the head. Of course, it's fairly safe to assume that when people come to our house, they may indeed suspect that something terrible could happen, especially if they've come over before.

Regardless, Matt kicked it up a notch and began getting all sorts of material - see the top piece? It's actually three pieces of wood, with the top piece nailed at an angle like a mantle. Both the top and bottom pieces also wrap around to the wall so there's no gap. My husband? Is pretty amazing.

Because it was somewhat more complicated than the easy tape-or-glue to the mirror projects, it caused Matt some anxiety, figuring out how to affix it to the studs at the appropriate spaces and calculating the angles of the saw and whatnot.

We were somewhat snappish with each other over that terrible weekend and every time I walk past the bathroom and see the frame, I feel a twinge guilty. Not enough to stop suggesting projects from Pinterest, though. Just a tad.

Speaking of things that are good for marriage...

Romantic Texting

I really hate to begin yet another subject with me looking things up on Pinterest...but here we are again. I saw this little bit about '50 Love Bombs to Send to Your Spouse' or something. Normally those sorts of titles induce my gag reflex but I thought "You know, I really should do stuff like that." The suggestions were things like:

"You're so strong."
"Need your cuddles."
"You are one good looking guy."

Immediately I knew that if I texted him something like that, he would realize something was terribly, terribly wrong. This sort of stuff is really sweet in other couples but it's just fake and cheesy with us. So in the end I texted something like "Hey, what's up?" Which is silly, because I knew what he was doing - talking to people about their investments. Obviously I didn't want to hear the details about that because OH MY GOSH, SO BORING, PLEASE STOP TALKING. And it was silly for him to ask me what I was doing because it's always the same as well - "Breaking up fights among offspring, please send wine."


Cutting off the Dead

Hair, that is. Kate convinced me months ago that we should both grow our hair like Rapunzel in Tangled. Science notwithstanding, I agreed. She's only young once. I know the style is long with beachy waves and curls nowadays but I simply cannot bring myself to care about hair enough to put the time in. Especially if the only outing most days was to Walmart, where even in yoga pants and a greasy ponytail I felt ok about myself. I had finally convinced Kate to at least cut some layers into her long hair so we went to the (where else?) salon at Walmart. The hairdresser told Kate that she had similarly thin hair and kept her hair short so it looked more styled. Katie suddenly said "Cut it all off."

So we did. And then, freed from the bondage of hair care, I cut mine off the next morning. The hairdresser kept telling me as she cut "You're going to have so much fun with this haircut" "My goodness, SO much fun."

I appreciate your enthusiasm but let's be honest - this is a haircut you're giving me, not a bounce house. Let's tone it down to appropriate levels.

Then as she teased it a little as it dried, she said "Oh my, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to give it so much body..."

Not to worry, my friend. It's going to look like a wavy mushroom unless I slather it with serum and straighten it repeatedly.

Needless to say, we've been having fun. SO much fun.