52 Dozen. Week 7. My Bumblebee.

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52 Dozen. Week 7.

My Bumblebee

My husband, Chad turned 30 on February 23^rd. His birthday is significant for lots of reasons, of course it’s the day he was born and a day I am very grateful for but it was also the day of our first “official” date 10 years ago: February 23, 2005. He was turning 20 and even though we had been talking for months and hung out several times in groups and just the two of us I wouldn’t call anything we had up until that point “a date.” His 20^th birthday landed on a Wednesday so he wasn’t going “home” from college until the weekend.

I was actually “seeing” four other guys at the same time as my husband but until Valentine’s Day of 2005 I wasn’t sure which I felt comfortable enough to be in an exclusive relationship with. All were treated the same, a fun time hanging out, a hug goodnight, and the chance to take me out again if they asked. I did this for a few months. I was in an abusive relationship for over a year my entire freshmen year of college so I was still healing and needed to see that not all men behaved that way. On Valentine’s Day Chad didn’t ask me out so I went out with two other guys (separately) that I had been seeing. That night was the last time I ever went out with either of them. It’s not they either did anything wrong, in fact both are very respectable guys that I stayed friends with but something my mom told me rung out loud and clear that night about each. She told me that at some point in every relationship you discover whether little characteristics of certain people become cute and endearing or annoying. Let’s just say I discovered some “ticks” about each of these guys that another woman is probably appreciating more than I ever would have today. Later that night I was on AOL Instant Messenger (remember that??) and talking to Chad. He always had the ability to make me smile and laugh and that night in particular he was so sweet to express how sad he was that he had not asked me out for Valentine’s Day so we started to plan to hang out for his birthday to make up for it.

The night of his birthday I decided to cook him dinner and made him a cake. During one of the times we hung out I remember him sort of picking at the cheap/unhealthy food I had so I was very intentional to make a “healthy” cake, strawberry shortcake. The night was filled with conversation, a lot of it seeming to be about our hopes and dreams for the future. Much to our surprise we had a lot of similar desires out of life. We went through the entire meal, and even the dessert, without any of the awkwardness you’d typically feel on a first date, I really remember feeling like we had been friends for years. The end of the evening came and I had a gift for him…a tackle box. Not just any normal tackle box but one I decorated with stickers of fish and “I love to fish” in several languages tattooed onto it in permanent marker. I went a step further and filled it with snickers bars (his fav).

It was cheesy ya’ll. REAL cheesy.

He acted like he loved it and didn’t have one single complaint about the entire meal. The next day we are chatting and I mentioned still having cake left over and asked if he wanted me to bring him any. He told me he had a confession to make. He HATED strawberries and had never really elected to eat them outside of that night. I was so surprised because he had nothing negative to say about it and even ATE it the night I cooked it for him. It was then that I realized the kind of man I was dealing with. He was the kind of man who would eat whatever I had cooked for him without a complaint, why? Because I took the time to make it and serve it to him and because he recognized that it meant spending his birthday with someone he liked instead of alone, and because it was worth the sacrifice of forgoing a preference to see my joy of having served him. He didn’t tell me all of those things in words, he SHOWED me those things in his actions.

That night set the tone for our relationship and showed me a small glimse of the honor he would give me if we were to end up together forever. I had never felt so treasured and valued. We entered into an exclusive relationship on February 27, 2005. It didn’t take long for that to sink in and for me to see that this was a man I could see myself with for the rest of my life. Can I tell you that nothing in that regard has changed in 10 years?

We were engaged after 6 months of dating and then married on May 12, 2007 after a 21 month engagement. Many said we wouldn’t make it, he was 22 and I was 21. What a gift it was to meet the one God intended just for me at such a young age.

This year for Chad’s birthday I wanted to do several small thoughtful gifts as well as take care of some projects for him. For the past few years I’ve cleaned the garage, a task neither of us want to do but is definitely necessary. We are DIYers to the max so the garage is constantly being turned into an auto clinic or workshop for some new project or repair. So this year I again embarked on the challenge of cleaning the garage. This year was a new challenge because of our son’s new napping schedule and my new work schedule so I was attempting to do this during nap time so it was done by the time Chad got home from work.

As I cleaned I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with how much CRAP and pure TRASH I was finding everywhere. Pieces of packaging, old oil sitting in a plastic cup, empty containers that never made it to the trash bin, dirty towels from wiping a spill, bags of trash that had been emptied from his car and never thrown in the big trash bin, etc. It was unbelievable. And here I was whining every step of the way (under my breath of course and in my head) when I knew I was taking this on to do a nice thing to SERVE my husband for his birthday. I realized this about 30 minutes into the 2 hour project of cleaning/organizing and stopped to pray realizing that if I didn’t stop I wouldn’t really receive any joy from the Lord for serving my husband, I’d actually end up resenting the whole afternoon. After I prayed I tried to look at things in a new light…

I remembered the projects he completed and saved us a ton of money by doing it himself, even after a 10-hour workday or 50-hour work week. As I moved different things around I realized how most EVERYTHING in the garage is along the wall that he pulls into each night. That means that every single day he gets home and gets out of his car he has to look at unfinished projects that probably still weigh heavy on his mind. I remembered that every time there was a project that took up parts of the garage he would ALWAYS move things to the side he normally parks in so that I could continue to use the garage as normal and load our son into the car each morning in the garage. I started thinking to myself “if we had a home with a garage that only held one car, who would park there?” I knew the answer was “me.” He would park out in the weather if there was a choice.

And there it was…

Just as 10 years prior he sacrificed his own preference and comfort to serve me and to allow me a luxury or take care of me. That is the man I married.

I married a man that chooses me daily, before he chooses himself. He puts my comfort and our son’s comfort above his own in immeasurable ways.

                  1 Peter 3:7

                  In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

As I finished the garage I reflected on our 10 years together. They have been the hardest 10 years of my life and I know I could not have faced them without him leading the way. We work hard to keep our marriage strong everyday and we give each other the hard truths as often as possible but it’s because my husband is truly my best friend. It’s never seemed hard to love this man because he is steadfast in loving me and serving me. I know I’ve had seasons where I don’t appreciate everything he does and the many preferences or comforts he sacrifices to serve me. That is when this verse serves as a reminder that a Christ-centered marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church and my husband does a beautiful job of loving me and being the strongest man I know.

                Ephesians 5:25-33

                ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body. ³¹ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³ However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

This week the cookies were mint chocolate chip cookies because that is my husband’s absolute favorite flavor of anything sweet. 

And in case you are wondering, my husband's nickname, Bumblebee is after the car in transformers who does not have his own voice but instead uses movie quotes and songs to communicate, my husband does that A LOT! It's almost a game we play now that I will try to stump him with movie/show quotes because he knows so many song lyrics and quotes that he stumps me all the time! Recently I was able to quote Rat Race and stumped him with a quote from Mr. Bean. It was so exciting! Hence, Bumblebee. 

And oh yea, that tackle box I made? It's sitting in our laundry room. Faded, missing some stickers, and beat up, but a constant reminder of where our love story began. 

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mint Chocolate Cookies
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp mint extract OR use mint flavored chocolate chips
15-20 drops green food coloring
1 bag of chocolate chips

Directions

1.      Preheat oven 375 degrees. 

2.     Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) together and set aside. 

3.     In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.

4.    Beat in egg and mint extract.

5.     Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

6.     Add green food coloring and mix until even colored. 

7.     Last, but not least, fold in the mint chocolate chips. 

8.    Using a #50 cookie scoop, set balls of dough 2 inches apart on cookie trays covered with parchment paper.

9.    Bake 9-11 minutes.

Baker’s Review:

This was a super easy recipe with amazing results. I had some issues with making the cookies to the chewy texture I usually prefer but I think it had more to do with my use of an insulated baking pan. If you are using an insulated pan watch cookies closely but bake them closer to 11-12 minutes and leave them on the pan until they cool a bit before transferring them to cooling racks. I ended up using chocolate chips FILLED with mint instead of the mint extract. This meant it was a traditional cookie with the mint and chocolate flavors coming from the chips so I was glad I used an entire bag. I actually ended up adding some normal dark chocolate chips to make the cookies seem a little richer. My husband was quite happy to have a dessert that DOES meet his preferences this birthday, even though I’m sure he would have eaten them regardless, it was nice to bake him something especially for him. My son wasn’t as big of a fan of the cookies but it was probably because of the mint. He’s also picked up a strange new characteristic…he doesn’t like getting messy so as soon as some chocolate got on his hand he kind of flipped out. He seemed to really like the cookie itself just not the warm, melting chocolate chips. Funny kid.