Day 302: Candle-lit Dessert

For my 302nd act of love, I set up a dessert for us in our living room.

You left that night for a meeting, so I had time to put the kids to bed and set things up. I put candles on the table, on the chairs, on the entertainment center, and on the table/stand thingy beside the couch. Then, I took the petals from a dozen roses and arranged them on the center of our table. Finally, I prepared two bowls of ice cream, each with chocolate sauce on top and a piece of a dark chocolate bar on the side:

It got quite warm very quickly and you were concerned about burning our house down, so we blew out most of the candles before we ate.

This dessert was a very good time and I felt a great connection to you. So often in the evenings, we’re with each other, but not paying much attention to each other. I like when we can go a little deeper and make things a little more meaningful. This orients my heart away from myself, which gives me great resolve to do well at work and in every other aspect of my life because I know I’m doing these things for us–for you–not just me.*

If there’s one thing that 365 hasn’t helped, it’s our diet! So often, I resort to getting/preparing you food or dessert for my act of love. It’s partly because you enjoy it when I do these things for you and partly because I enjoy it. Anyway, in the end, this hasn’t had a real effect on our health since we’ve been conservative in our indulgence.

*Of course, the primary orientation of my heart should be toward my God. Such an orientation should motivate me to excellence in all that I do.

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Day 279: Banana Split

On Tuesday, I made you this banana split:

Sorry it’s blurry.

Before I did, I was driving home from a work thing around 9 PM and I didn’t know what to do for my act of love. I thought maybe I could make you some sort of craft, so I dropped by Michael’s. They were closed. Then, I wandered through Albertson’s trying to come up with something. I realized that we had all the ingredients for banana splits except for bananas and whipped cream. So, I bought those things and went home.  Though I try to plan out my acts of love, many of them end up being spur-of-the-moment things. Some of them turn out well that way. Other’s don’t.

After I made you your dessert, I noticed that you’d already made yourself a dessert. That wasn’t ideal and could’ve been avoided if I’d planned out this act in advance. Still, you seemed excited for your banana split.

You were only able to eat half, so you gave me the other half. Lately I’ve been counting my calories. I knew that by eating it, I would go way over my daily calorie limit, but by not eating it, I would waste it. I ate it. That was certainly the right decision. Yum.

Day 233: Heart Brownie

You and I made brownies for all of us, including my sister and Daow. Before the brownies were done, though, you left for a meeting. I cut this brownie out for you while you were gone:

 

Day 206: Homemade Starbucks

You love Starbucks, but neither of us loves to spend $5 for a cup of coffee. So instead of buying you Starbucks, I made it for you at home. I blended coffee, milk, coffee ice cream, and ice together, then poured the mixture into a Starbucks cup:

It was quite unfortunate that we didn’t have whipped cream on hand. But what the drink lacked in whipped cream, I made up for in sprinkles (though in truth, nothing can replace the former):

I even wrote your name on the cup to simulate authenticity:

I think I took this picture after I'd sampled some of the drink, which explains the fact that there's less coffee in the cup than in the other pictures.

Perhaps I should’ve given you the full-blown experience by calling out your name when your drink was ready.

Day 198: A Date

On Friday, we traveled to a camp near Malibu for our church’s annual retreat. The day’s activities ended with a cookie-and-coffee social, but we thought we couldn’t go because two of our kids were asleep and we couldn’t leave them alone in our room. However, I found someone to watch our kids so we could go. We made it into a date, taking our time walking down there, grabbing some cookies and cappuccinos, and enjoying the night air as we bonded over dessert. It felt like a real date and we were thankful for our friend who was willing to help out.

Day 192: Dessert Nests

I’ve been on a sugar kick lately, which is why, on Saturday, I made you dessert for the second time in a week. I mixed melted chocolate, peanut butter, and chow mein noodles together, then formed the mixture into nests. I put candy eggs on top of the nests and gave bunny peeps the task of hatching the eggs. Here’s one of them:

Day 189: Mud Pie

On Wednesday, I made you dessert: chocolate pudding and Oreo cookies mixed, with gummy worms and whipped cream on top. I don’t know what it’s actually called, but my mom calls it “mud pie”:

 

 

In order to use the pot, I had to take the plant out. Still, I left a little dirt inside for authenticity. Just kidding. The pot had never been used.

 

 

Day 95: Surprise Dessert

On Sunday, we celebrated New Year’s by eating at Chili’s. After we finished our food, I excused myself from the table, approached the hostess, and asked her for a pen and paper. When she gave me them, I wrote this on the paper: “Just because I love you. –Chauncey” (Let “Chauncey” be my alias for the blog. Let’s call you “Francine.”) Then, I approached our server with the note and asked her to bring us the brownie and ice cream dessert with my note placed on the side.

When I returned to my seat, you asked me what I did. I shrugged my shoulders. You jokingly whispered, “You got up just to flirt with the server then?” I whispered in response, “That depends on which server you’re talking about.” (I know—those are terrible jokes.) Then you said, “Seriously, what were you up to?” I laughed nervously and my face turned red. The server honestly took 10 minutes to bring out that dessert and you grilled me the entire time. I nearly gave up the surprise to make you stop.

When our dessert finally arrived, you said, “Oh, Chauncey! You did this for me?! Look girls, dad bought us a dessert just because he loves us!” As you girls were eating the dessert, I asked if I could have some. You said, “Oh, did you buy this because you love yourself?” I said, “Didn’t you read the note? It says ‘Just because I love you, Chauncey.’” You laughed as you handed me a spoon.

When we got into the car, you leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, “I’m happy out of my tree that you did that for me, but I’m happier that you’re teaching our girls how guys should treat them.” As you said this, I reached around you and tapped you on the head with the book I was holding (yes, I see the irony in that). You grabbed the book from me, smacked me on the head (notice the lack of proportionality in your response), and said, “Are you ever serious? . . . Really, though, thanks for the dessert.” You’re welcome, Francine.

Day 91: Romantic Dinner #2

For my 91st act of love, I treated you to a romantic dinner in our home. I planned on making the dinner myself, but work got in the way so we shared the responsibility. We made crockpot pork loin, potatoes, and vegetables.

Last time we had a romantic dinner, our kids ate with us. This time, I did what I could to make sure it was just the two of us (there’s only so much you can control with a baby in the house). At 8, we put the kids to bed and (wonder of wonders!) the baby fell asleep too. I then set the table up with your flowers for the week (which I’ve been consistently buying, but not blogging about), a candle, and our dinner. I also set the computer to play the 10 songs I bought you from your iTunes wish list (at that point, you didn’t know I bought them).

We started eating dinner and the music started playing. “Do you recognize this song?” I asked. “Yeah, I know this song.” We continued eating. When the next song came on I asked, “How about this one?” “Yeah, this song’s good.” By the third song, you began to wonder why I was asking: “Did you buy some songs from my wish list or something?” “Yes, I did!” “You went through all that trouble for little ol’ me?!” you replied in a slightly Southern accent. (I had to retrieve the wish list from an external hard drive, so it wasn’t simply a click of the button.) “Yeah, I did it because I like ya.” You started tearing up and thanked me. Who knew you’d like that act so much?

After dinner, I brought out a piece of cheescake for us to share. I started to feed you the dessert myself, being mockingly romantic. But I pushed the fork too far in your mouth and made you gag. After laughing that one off, I let you feed yourself. When we finished our dessert, we enjoyed each other’s company on the couch for a few minutes. Then, our baby woke up. So the three of us enjoyed each other’s company.

Later in the evening, our four-year-old daughter called me up to her room. She asked, “So, did I hear something about a romantic dinner?” “Yes.” Then she asked in an accusatory tone, “Are you going to a restaurant without me?!” “Ha ha! No, we already ate our romantic dinner . . . What’s a romantic dinner, sweetie?” “I don’t know,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders and laid back down to go to sleep.

With a great ambience, 3 sleeping kids, and a nice dinner and dessert, I’d say romantic dinner #2 was a success.