Our Favorite Game

So it's not really a game...but it's one of our favorite activities that we play at. We call it "Gift of the Magi" which is not so cleverly named after the short story by O. Henry entitled "The Gift of the Magi." This short story is one of my favorites. I remember having it read to me as a child by librarians and my mom and it's poignancy has never left me.



(Spoiler Alert) In the story a young couple: Jim and Della, very much in love, are struggling at Christmas time to buy each other meaningful gifts with only dollars in their pockets. In the opening pages, Jim is still at work and Della is agonizing over this dilemma. She wants to give him something to match her love for him. There are only two possessions of any value that they together cherish: Jim's watch without a chain that belonged to his father and grandfather. The other is Della's hair, the most beautiful hair that kisses her knees and looks like a waterfall of silk down her back. And after musing on these two 'items' it becomes clear to Della what she can and must do: she leaves to sell her hair to buy Jim a watch chain. (This part of the story gnaws at my stomach). She comes home, proud of her purchase but now nervous, 'Can Jim still love her without her hair?' She waits anxiously for him to arrive. When Jim returns home Della rushes out to meet him, eager to see if his love for her will wane. Jim is taken aback but then tells her why: his present to her is a set of beautiful, exquisite combs for her hair, her previously long hair. But Della, not hesitating for a moment remembers that Jim has not even see his present yet. And she thrusts the box to him and he unwraps a chain, a chain for his watch, which he tells Della that he has just sold to purchase her gift, the hair combs. Ahhh, can you believe it? Doesn't this just tear at your heart and warm it in the same moment?

Well, like I started with, Ben I play 'Gift of the Magi.' Our play is not nearly so penetrating but it is always warming, just the same. Here are some examples of recent 'play:'

Some laundry desperately needed to be done before going out of town and I had to work and couldn't get it done: Ben would need to step in as resident laundress. Ben is fully capable of doing the laundry, no problem there. However, about 1/3 of my clothes I don't put in the dryer: delicates, jeans I don't want to shrink, sweaters, etc which makes it difficult for someone else to launder my clothes. The morning before I left for work I pulled out everything that didn't go in the dryer and put that pile in my closet. I left the hamper with all of the other clothing to be washed by the door. When I got home that night, Ben proudly showed me an assortment of clothes on the drying rack: a delicate looking shirt, a pair of jeans, some underwear...He had painstakingly gone through my clothing item by item at the laundry mat and pulled out anything he thought I might not put in the dryer. I just smiled and went to my closet and produced all of the true delicates: we just laughed.

Another story: we needed some sugar (last minute). We had meant to pick it up all week for some baking for someone's birthday. Thursday night, we both return home late from work. I walk in the door and Ben shows me the sugar, he has gone to the grocery store (his least favorite chore) and picked up the sugar and I have taken a despised detour from my one hour commute home to pick up the sugar. Now: two bags of sugar and laughter.

A final vignette: Company is coming over and the wood floor needs to be swept. I come home from work and Ben is not there. I sweep the whole (450 square foot) apartment so he won't have to when he gets in. He walks in on me cleaning and asks what I am doing because he has already swept the floor today: so I wouldn't have to :) These are some of my favorite moments in marriage.

A place for everything...well...almost everything

The Saga of our Shrinking Kitchen

First of all, as an aside to this new post, are some thoughts on this blog in general. A) I need to blog more often--I am going to blog more often. I really enjoy blogging and, thus, because I enjoy it I relegate blogging to the "if I have time category" of my life which is like 7 minutes a day. Boo :( C.S. Lewis said that we should spend our time doing things we either need to do or love to do. And frankly, I spend a lot of time doing things that are neither, i.e. watching TV, checking facebook, cleaning incessantly, sleeping more than eight hours a night, etc. But I really love blogging: there should be more of that. B) I need to blog more about things that Ben and I will want to look back on: memories, things we have learned, things we have unlearned, life events and the like--a catalogue of our life as it happens and what we think about it.

But onward to our post for today: our kitchen! This is one of those things I want to remember: the size and idiosyncrasies of our kitchen: tiny and lacking in the appliance department. But I am NOT complaining because I love our apartment and our miniature kitchen. Some day I want to do a blog on our apartment in general: somewhere between 400 and 500 square feet I would guess. It's half the second story of a large 1920's home and it has character. But today, we appraise and applaud our kitchen!

There is little more Ben and I love to do together other than cook, which by that I really mean, he cooks and I act as his sous chef. I'm not bad but he really thrives in the kitchen. And our kitchen is just big enough for the two of us.



It has a teeny tiny oven which we have unbelievably cooked a Thanksgiving turkey in.


Looks like our oven needs to be cleaned...


This is our "dishwasher."


Our kitchen also has artistic flare...notice how the traditional black and white checkered linoleum is actually a black racing stripe through the middle of our kitchen.


And our pantry...

(Which, I know you won't believe me, is actually pretty well organized. Benny can't find anything but I know where everything is in our cupboard :) Also, you may have noticed there are at least 4 bags of flour in the picture--and there is more. They were on sale, a really good sale, which still drives Benny crazy because we clearly don't have a lot of room for buying in bulk. But I couldn't pass it up.

And lastly, our garbage disposal...

Which actually comes in pretty handy, Benny that is. We don't have a lot of leftovers around here and we wouldn't have the space if we did. And yes, he is drinking a glass of milk with whipped cream and a cherry. There is no one quite like my Benny :)


This is our first place and I really don't think I have loved any place more!

The End of the Month

Ben and I have a pretty strict budget that we try to adhere to and yesterday, the last day of March, we were running out of funds. We had $3 left in our grocery budget and not much left in our cupboards. We had a can of beets (yuck), cannelloni beans, oatmeal, wild rice, Kraft Mac'N Cheese packets, one egg, fresh mushrooms...pretty much nothing to make a meal of. I had to pick up a prescription at Target and while I was musing over our dinner options I found that Target had canned tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, and noodles all on sale for less than $2 combined! At home I found one 'good' onion and we had some garlic.

However, I was still feeling so uninspired. Ben is such a creative chef and because he was playing tennis last night I was in charge of "creating" so I was feeling kind of sulky about our meal. And then I remembered...my elephant bank! I dumped her out on the bed and counted my blessings: about $7. I then headed to Trader Joe's to do some trading. I was a little concerned about paying in change because TJ's always has long lines and nobody pays in cash anymore and definitely nobody pays in nickels and dimes. So I walked there and took my canvas bag so that at least TJ's would think I was green--that I was on their side and then they wouldn't mind the coins.


(Please disregard my unmade bed)

And look at my success: spicy Italian (chicken) sausage and a bottle of wine! Not bad for a 31st of the month!


(And so sad, I forgot to take a picture of our meal which turned out really well.)