Monday Meal Plan + A Marriage Moment

 Hey Hey Friends!!

Happy Monday!!

How was your weekend?

We had a really nice, very "fall" weekend. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and there was a pretty good chill in the air on Sunday. 

Which is NOT my favorite (warm weather all year please!!)..but the sun was shining so that kept me from complaining. HA!

Sunday afternoon, I sat down to plan out our meals for the week and I have to tell you- I literally could NOT come up with anything other than our typical pizza night and Sunday night burgers! My girls are getting much better about eating a wider variety of foods (FINALLY)- but my boys are still VERY picky. That makes meal planning OH SO FUN. HA!

Anyway...here's what I came up with for this upcoming week!

My husband came up with the idea for shaved steak grilled cheese. Buttery bread, gooey cheese and super thinly sliced steak. Sounds like a pretty solid combination- and perfect for a Saturday night!!

I wanted to share a little "marriage moment" that happened over the weekend. 

Saturday mornings are when all the kids do their chores. Everyone cleans their room and their bathrooms. 

Well...our boys' room was a SITUATION. I told Aaron we had to go up there and tackle it with the boys because it needed some SERIOUS HELP. HA!

Anyway...we spent a couple hours cleaning and organizing and time literally was just slipping away. Aaron was gracious enough to finish cleaning up with the boys and I went up to our gym workout.

As I am working out, I am running through all the other things I needed to get done and was totally feeling like I just wouldn't have enough time to do it all!!

Aaron came up to check in with me and I listed off all the things that were "stressing" me out: Charlotte needed to get a flu shot, I needed to take a shower and get ready, everyone needed to eat lunch and we had to be out the door at a certain time to go to my mom's house. He listened, offered to make everyone lunch- I told him, "no. I will do that!" (HA!) and then said he was going to let me finish my workout.

Well. As I am running on the treadmill, I find myself getting increasingly upset that he didn't ask to take Charlotte to get her flu shot. I am thinking to myself, "I told him she needed to get a flu shot and that I wasn't going to have the time to take her...why didn't HE suggest to take her?!" 

Then, I started to do some more mental gymnastics and think to myself- why wouldn't he think to do that? Does he not care about how stressed I felt about that!?

WOW. Our minds + emotions are quite amazing aren't they? 

I felt myself spiraling. 

Thanks to several years of marriage/individual counseling...I slowed myself down enough to identify what was really going on. 

I felt out of control. I felt like I couldn't do all the things that felt important to me.

Then, I spoke some affirmations to myself:

Aaron cannot read your mind. 

When you share what you need from him, he always will help you.

You are on the same team- you can tell him how you are feeling.

And then I started to see so much clearly. The feelings of wanting to attack him about not being helpful totally subsided.

I texted him to come back up to the gym. When he did, I simply said- "Would you mind taking Charlotte to get her flu shot?" 

And he said, "No problem! Where do I need to take her?"

And that was that. All the truths I had spoke to myself were TRUE. I told him what I needed and he was happy to help. 

In the past, when Aaron and I were struggling in our marriage, I would have totally made this situation into something it wasn't. And this "little" moment would have turned into something that it shouldn't have.

Later on in the evening, I told Aaron about this whole scenario. I told him I felt so proud that I didn't let myself listen to the lies my emotions in the moment were telling me. He told me he loved me and felt so thankful I gave him the opportunity to know what I was feeling- AND he was so glad that I asked for what I needed. Because...despite popular belief- none of us are mind readers. HA!

Some of you might think this situation sounds so silly and trite. And I get that. 

But hopefully it will resonate with some of you.

Aaron and I have had to work extremely hard to be in the beautiful, strong place we are in our marriage now. 

And we make a commitment every day to choose love, kindness and forgiveness over annoyance, anger or resentment. It is WORTH IT.

Hopefully at lease a few of you are still reading. HA! Thanks for bearing with me :)

I love alliteration- so it made me way too happy to share a marriage moment on a Monday. HA!

I hope you have the BEST day and a wonderful week!!