This past year I’ve started a new favorite thing…brunch. I’ve loved meeting up with a friend, or two, typically on a friday or Saturday morning. For whatever reason, I just feel more relaxed and enjoy just “being” for a few hours when brunch is involved.

I’ve enjoyed this new favorite part of my week with many different people – girlfriends, my daughters, one of the grand-babies, a brand new friend and twice I even enjoyed the time ALONE! I loved each interaction, but today I was happy to be with my favorite person on the planet (good gravy, everyone reading this better know I’m talking about Tom).

If I’m being completely honest, the day didn’t start off great…being totally real, this past WEEK hasn’t been “great” – in fact, it’s been a beating.

I think we have apologized to each other more in the past week than in previous months combined. We have been totally “off” – struggling to believe the best about each other’s comments, motives, thoughts.  We have “negatively interrupted” (Thanks RENEW for the verbiage) a LOT and it wasn’t pretty around here.

Lots of things contributed to the “ugh” but – job stress/searches, different people in our lives in crisis, Hurricane Harvey, wedding planning (and budgets), our youngest moving out (officially making us TRULY “empty nesters”), and just “life” have given us lots of opportunities to not make each other a priority. Best way to say it – we hadn’t made any time for any conversation except for what we HAD to discuss…no fun, no light-hearted banter, no flirting – just the hard stuff of life.

So- after we apologized for last night and this morning (and the new round of dis-respect we tossed on each other), we made up and headed out to brunch! I need to be honest and say that while I NEVER like to be at odds with Tom, the fact that it was his BIRTHDAY made the desire to “make up” even more of a priority. I had no desire to ruin HIS day!

A friend recently told me about her favorite breakfast place and it sounded like the perfect place for Tom. Lots of spicy options, potatoes and beans, and his favorite – biscuits & gravy.

After ordering I said, “Oh, hey- I brought this… (plopped the “Question Jar” on the table)…just cause I want to make sure we stay away from any super heavy topics and I just want to get to know you more on your BIRTHDAY!”

This jar – it’s a “Brunch-Saver” (don’t want to be dramatic and call it a “Life-saver” but…). It allowed us to ask each other some questions and  I actually learned some new things.  His first question  was “What was your favorite childhood toy?” and it was fun to see his eyes light up as he talked about his “Huffy BMX”/bike and all the adventures that he had on it.

So, today I’m thankful for BRUNCH…and for a re-set for Tom and I.  Next week has the potential to be just as stressful and I’m praying that we handle it differently, but today it was nice just to watch my man enjoy his “Birthday Biscuits & Gravy” and leave the “ugh” of last week behind us.

Brunch…it’s one of my favorite things. But – doesn’t come close to my man.

Tom: Happy Birthday, Love.  As I said when I apologized this morning, “I adore you…you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me…I’m on your team…and I’m so thankful I get to do life with you!”

And I’ll add: “You can be my brunch date ANY DAY!”

Oh, and the question that we spent the most time talking about…

#iSaidSleep #heDidNot 🙂