4o things

My best friend in the whole wide world, my Sweetie, {aka my husband, Gordon} is turning 40 this year. If you're crinkling your forehead in confusion, yes, I married a younger man {by 8 years} and boy was I lucky when our paths crossed.

 December 1997

That's a photo of us at a friend's Christmas party two weeks before Gordon proposed to me on Christmas Eve. Do you see that possessive hug I have on that hottie? "Back off ladies, he's all mine," it seems to say. And I still feel that way.

Speaking of Christmas...sometime last year, just after Christmas, I was thinking about projects and ideas and plans for Gordon's birthday and came up with the idea of 4o Things I Love About You. Not an original idea, but the twist on my version is that each week I write something that happened that week that reminds me why I love my husband so much. The plan came together, by a stroke of luck, when I counted back 4o weeks from his birthday in September and it just so happened that the first week I needed to begin my project was December 15th.

I began with a simple spiral bound notebook and numbered lines from 1 to 40...


...and one to grow on, which is the title of the 41st week.

The 40th week is September 14th, his birthdate and so on and so on. I numbered the weeks so that I would know my progress and I highlight the week when I've written that week's "love" thought. At this point, I am just writing in my spiral bound notebook as I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this project. I'll keep you updated though, I'm sure it will be some sort of mini album. {wink, wink}


To help me follow-through on this project, I have a reminder in my calendar so that each week I take a moment to think about how Gordon made me smile. I think it will be more unique to have a weekly thought with a date so that it's sort of a timeline of his last year in his 30's and a spin on my Gratitude Journal as well, rather than me just coming up with 4o reasons why I love him. 

I am so grateful that God brought Gordon and I together. I know I might drive you crazy with the really nice things about Gordon here on the blog. He's a special man to have married an older {divorced} woman with a 6-year old son {Gordon has been in Zach's life since he was 3 1/2}. How does a young man tell his parents about that? From Day One I have felt nothing but warmth, compassion and acceptance from my in-laws. And they treated Zach as if he were one of their natural-born grandchildren, even thought at the time they didn't have any. Now that they have Isabella and Victoria, I am even more certain that they were, and are, so, so good to Zach and have never made a difference in the natural-born or by marriage designation.

To keep it real, Gordon IS an awesome partner, but we have our moments, too. We're both first-born, Type A personalities who both think we're wRight and will stand firm for what we believe. Thank goodness he's a Virgo, because I am a bit more strong-willed than he is {I'm Aries} and find it hard to apologize and back down. One of my flaws, and I'm not proud of it. We don't have too many "moments" but we are normal, ya know?

One thing we do have a lot of is this; fun together. He makes me laugh, sometimes cry. He thinks I'm witty and beautiful, but it means more to me that he thinks I am intelligent. And he brags about me to his friends and colleagues. And he cleans the bathroom. And cooks. Okay, and buys and trades cars and trucks and various other 4-wheeled vehicles much too often. See what I mean, much more good than bad.


I have no trouble at all coming up with my weekly reasons for loving him so much. He's a keeper. And I'm happy to have been the one to spend the last 16 years of his life with him.

...just an idea that you might want to try out for the awesome man in your life.

9 comments

  1. So sweet! What a great idea for the book. Love it!

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  2. Awww, I so enjoyed reading this post! You are a very blessed lady to have such a wonderful husband & friend. :)
    Thanks for such a great idea. Also a great idea to do for our Moms, sister, etc! ;)

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  3. LOVE this idea!!! My guy doesn't turn 40 for (***adds in head***) another 7 years, but he may get something like this sooner than that. What I love is that you have the project broken up over weeks as opposed to just sitting down and trying to come up with 40 things on the fly (not that it's not possible, but this is so much easier and timely!) Love it.

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  4. Thanks Monika! You've just given me a fantastic idea to do for my hubby who turns 40 in August. I don't have as much time as you, so will have to come up with the 40 reasons in one sitting rather than over 40 weeks. I can't wait to see what you come up with at the end of the 40 weeks! :D

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  5. What a fantastic idea Monika!
    and I do cherish reading about your love, it's a breath of fresh from the "big" extra marital scandals we have been hearing about these past few days!

    Thank you for being such a big inspiration, this post has made me think in ways I needed to and didn't know (if that makes sense ;-S)

    {{Hugs}}

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  6. great idea! about 5 years ago i tried to do something similar to this for my husband. My goal was to jot down every time he did something nice for me during the year and was going to use them all for a valentine card/mini album. I stopped jotting things down... it was too hard to do for a whole year! Think i might try something like you are doing and shorten the length of time i am jotting things down. You always have such great ideas!!

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  7. Loved this post - you could have been describing my sweetie and me. Yes, I am also 8 yrs older than my husband and he's my best friend as well. His parents are like parents to me and they have accepted, loved and welcomed my 2 girls as their grandchildren too. I am so blessed to have met and married my husband and I thank God every day for him. Guess a mini book is in order for his 45th birthday (a few years from now)!

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  8. I started something similar for my husband! I guess I don't really have #s for each but I try to take a day each and think of what he did that week that makes me glad he's mine! :) Sweet idea!

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  9. Loooove that picture, Monika! (And yes, it IS quite similar to mine!) :) Can't wait to hear what Gordon thinks about the book!

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