Project Valentine

Last October, soon after I'd launched Look What Danny Made!, I watched a different horror movie each night and blogged about it - Project Horror!  One Saturday evening, while the family was driving to dinner, I asked Courtney if she would watch that night's movie with me.  She is not a horror fan, to say the least.  I told her that maybe next time I'd do a month of romantic comedies and she'd watch some with me.  I'm not a romantic comedy fan, to say the least.  Conversation followed...

"You know, you might end up liking some of them if you give them a chance, instead of being a cynical ass."
"I'm going to blog that you said that.  Part of the challenge in this marathon, since I won't be as into the movies, would be to try to find a lesson in each movie that I can apply to our marriage."
"Lesson 1 - you need to buy me more presents."
"I'm going to blog that you said that, too."
"Suck it, Holwerda.  Blog that I said that."

Don't feel sorry for me.  I married a redhead, I knew what I was getting into.  Anyway, that conversation was the birth of the idea for my next viewing project, Project Valentine.  Here's the thing, though: I cannot watch a month of romantic comedies.  I just can't.  If I'm going to do this for 28 days, it has to be at least a little bit fun for me, right?  So instead, the theme has been opened up to all kinds of romance.  As with Project Horror, I've split the month up into several smaller blocks.  Here's what you have to look forward to!

• February 1-4:  Classic Romance
• February 5-8:  Manic Pixie Dream Girls
• February 9-12:  My Creepy Valentine
• February 13-16:  Dude, That's So Gay
• February 17-20:  Ugh, Let's Watch Julia Roberts
• February 21-24:  Sexytime
• February 25-28:  Heavyweights (movies that were suggested to me by multiple people)

And here's the rules I've set for myself:

1. I relaxed my rule from Project Horror about only watching movies I hadn't seen before.  I will say that I haven't seen the majority of them.  I mention this because I'm relying on the recommendations of friends and Netflix.  Some of these movies may not end up fitting a strict definition of "romance," but I tried to pick movies that a person could reasonably watch and feel like they had watched something of romantic interest.
2. At least one movie per day.
3. Last but not least, I'll not only rate each movie, but I will also attempt to find a lesson for my own marriage in each one.

First movie is tomorrow night - get ready to be romanced by Danny, y'all.

Blake's Homework

Courtney is out of town this week.  Sadly, her grandmother is very ill, and the outlook isn't very good, so Courtney's gone to be with her family in Dallas.

Luckily the bigger two children are getting old enough to be a little more independent, which makes certain things easier while I'm being solo dad.  Tonight, though, Blake had homework for the first time and wanted my help.
ASSIGNMENT 1: Draw the night sky.  He wanted to go outside for inspiration, but was already in pajamas and couldn't find his slippers.  Instead, I pulled out a book for us to work from.  Two things make this book cool.  First, it was written and illustrated by H. A. Rey, who wrote and illustrated Curious George.  Second, it used to be my dad's when he was a boy, then mine when I was a boy, and now Blake is using it.

ASSIGNMENT 2:  Choose something that relates to the career you would like to have someday and bring it to school for show and tell.  Blake is very into the idea of being a police officer lately, so he ran to his room and got out his pretend badge to put in his backpack, and then said, "I wish that I had a pair of handcuffs, too."  And he said it so sweetly and plaintively that I just couldn't bear the thought of sending him to school without handcuffs.

I just hope that he doesn't feel the need to explain to any of his friends or teachers that Daddy keeps a pair of handcuffs in his nightstand.

Awaking from my long winter's nap

I haven't written in over a month, and it's actually not from neglect.  It's more that I've had a single, overarching thing happening, and it was occupying my mind a lot.  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, things with Blake have had lots of ups and downs lately.  I've been trying to decide how to write about it, and finally decided to leave the kid some dignity and just say this - our family had a very tough patch, but we've taken some steps together to fix it, and I feel like we've turned a corner.

Of course, part of the problem with taking a month off is that if I post Christmas pictures now, it'll just make me look lazy and behind the curve.  Instead, here's a picture of my hand last week.

That festering thing on the side is where a spider bit me.  I don't remember the actual bite, and it didn't even hurt for a day or two, but then it did nothing but hurt.  This picture doesn't really do justice to just how blackened, oozing, and swollen this thing was.  The lovely tile floor is at the doctor's office, where I found out that a staph infection had set in, and that's the reason my entire arm swelled up like a balloon and felt like God was using it as a punching bag.  But, just as things with Blake have gotten much better, so too has my hand.

Happy New Year, friends.