- #40D4W Explained: Forty Days For Wife
- #40D4W – Day 1: Check your ego at the door
- #40D4W – Day 2: This is how I roll
- #40D4W – Day 3: A roll of the dice
- #40D4W – Day 4: Vanity, all is vanity
- #40D4W – Day 5: At what price porcelain?
- #40D4W – Day 6: Not far enough from the madding crowd
- #40D4W – Day 7: Laundry by any other name is still Hell
- #40D4W – Day 8: Fibber McGee’s Closet – Round One
- #40D4W – Day 9: Stripping the lights. Fantastic.
- #40D4W – Day 10: Souper Man
- #40D4W – Day 11: A thousand words
- #40D4W – Day 12: Philosowrapter
- #40D4W – Day 13: As nasty as I don’t wanna be
- #40D4W – Day 14: Confessions of an Angry Man
- #40D4W – Day 15: My side of the story
- #40D4W – Day 16: Basic Training
- #40D4W – Day 17: Course it’s a good idea!
- #40D4W – Day 18: Now that’s a fire!
- #40D4W – Day 19 – 31: Mid-Wife Crises
January 19 – 31, 2016
I was feeling guilty for a while – to the point of giving up on everything ManHusbandDad – because I wasn’t living up to my self-imposed Forty Days for Wife obligations…until I realized I had been. The thing I wasn’t keeping up with was writing about them. And that made me think I still have a lot of narcissism to let go, because telling potential readers about them was fulfilling my need to be important to people I don’t even know.
So for the last two weeks I have been fulfilling my God-imposed obligations that I freely accepted and embraced in my covenantal bond of Holy Matrimony. That’s what it really is. The fact that I’m focused for forty days, sure, means something and is a vehicle to forming a habit – but I was beating myself up as I looked at what I had done the last three weeks thinking what a schlub and slob I was for not doing them before.
But I was falling into the trap that society has laid for Men, Husbands, and Dads: I was convincing myself that I had been worthless.
Well, that’s a bunch of bull.
Now, every day that is missing between the last post and this one is represented here. And it’s not for you, it’s for me: A damned fine ManHusbandDad.
In no particular order I…
- Patrolled the house in the wee hours, gun in hand and dog by side, while everyone else slept soundly, after hearing an unfamiliar sound;
- Drove some two thousand miles for everyone else;
- Convinced a family member to go to their caucus in Iowa;
- Made dinner;
- Souped up the side dishes for dinner;
- Baked a cake;
- Taught my oldest boy the next step in Being a Man;
- Changed a light bulb;
- Kept our room clean;
- Calculated insulin pump settings;
- Folded more clothes than I can remember;
- Put gas in the car
- Often.
- Said I didn’t care where God wanted us to be. And meant it.
- Bought medicine;
- Did not express my anger inappropriately (that would suffice for each of every day’s sacrifice!)
- Graded school work;
- Taught history, math, spelling, theology, grammar, manners, etiquette, and driving.
- Juggled the post-Christmas finances that every January tends to present;
- Did the taxes;
- Mourned
There’s more, and I probably won’t post them, and I may not even complete the posts for the rest of this Lent. It’s a nice exercise – but I’m not trying to impress anyone – just trying to make me better.