New Year's Gift

I don't do very well with New Year's Resolutions, but I do like reflecting on my life and what I need / want to improve.  I don't do this only in January, though, so, there's that.

Every year, though, I make a year-long gift to my husband.  It's not a resolution, it's a gift. 

The first year I did this, I decided I would pray every time it was my turn to pray.  Before that year, I was notoriously bad for saying, "I don't want to, you do it."  And then Rob would pray pretty much every day.  That worked well for me until I realized that I was totally taking advantage of Rob's niceness.  I mean, if he did that to me, I'd give him an ear full.

Now, I'm happy to report, I even pray sometimes when it's his turn.  You know, if he's tired or whatnot.  So, hurray for me.

I kept it going.  I decided that I should make more gifts to Rob.  This winter I decided that I would only put my cold hands on his bare stomach in times of extreme need.  He's appreciated that.

And this year, my Year-Long Gift to Rob is not hitting him. 

This is a massive sacrifice for me.  Because you know what you do to males whom you love and adore?  You hit them, of course!  Softly.  There are only so many people in the world that I can hit at all.  Rob is one of, what, 6?  (Rob plus 5 brothers.)  And the other 5 live so far away.

So I've started telling him, "Guess what?  Right now I'm hugging you, but I wanted to hit you instead.  Isn't that nice of me?" 

The last time that I just hugged him, he kinda brushed it off, like he didn't really care.  And I was like, "Hold up there.  You don't seem like you appreciate this NEARLY as much as I miss it.  Need to hear that you're happy about this!" 

...  Pretty much, I haven't always treated my adorable husband as well as he deserves.  So I have to make year-long efforts to make it up to him.  Poor guy, married me and not some nice human being who already knows that abuse isn't appropriate and that taking advantage of someone's niceness is, you know, wrong.

Hurray for change!