Week 85: Shopping Trip
New clothes, new spatulas and a night spent together.
Each Sunday, my wife and I cook and eat a meal together — intentionally. Every Friday, I’ll be sharing our experience here in this space. I want to see the growth that will come in our marriage because of this. I hope you enjoy our story. You can find last week’s post here.
Ever since we’ve been married, Sarah has let me take charge of the finances. She doesn’t like handling all the numbers. I’m not much a math person either, but for whatever reason I do enjoy doing the monthly budget. We have our usual expenses — groceries, rent and gas for the cars. But I don’t often include a budget for shopping, often to the chagrin of Sarah. This night, that changed.
My Philosophy of Shopping
I’ve always had the same idea when it comes to shopping. You have in mind what item(s) you’re there to buy, then you go in and buy them. It’s quick and surgical. You go right to the section with the item you’re looking for. If you like it, great! Go ahead and buy it. If you don’t, there’s no reason to stay in the store looking around.
On previous shopping trips, I’ve realized that Sarah shops differently than I do. She likes to peruse. I will quickly become disinterested, and this has made shopping trips difficult in the past. My error comes when I get too focused on myself, something I thankfully recognized during this particular shopping trip. It’s not all about me, nor should it be. My focus should be on my wife, and tonight she need a few new pairs of clothes.
Give and Take
Before we bought new clothes, we purged our closet of the old ones. A quick trip to Goodwill with trashbags full of clothes made room for our shopping spree. Old Navy and Target were on the list. They are right next to each other in the shopping center near our apartment. We went to Old Navy first.
Aaaaannd it was closed. A minor setback, but Sarah was undeterred. Her husband was actually in a shopping mood for once!
However, when we got to Target, my old habits while shopping with my wife began to creep in. I started to become disinterested. But then I thought about how hard my wife had been working lately. I thought about all the clothes she had just donated. She deserved this. But the fact remained that I simply couldn’t look at one more blouse in that particular moment.
So, I walked over to the men’s section and looked at pants. I wasn’t going to buy anything, but it gave me a slight moment to breathe. In the short time I was gone, Sarah had picked out a few more outfits. We took our conquests to the fitting room to try them on. My jaw nearly hit the floor when Sarah showed me her new outfits. She looked absolutely stunning — as she always does. It wasn’t the new clothes that made her beautiful. I think she’s beautiful no matter what she wears. But Sarah enjoys shopping and trying on new clothes. I forget that sometimes. Do we have the money to do it every day? No. But every once in a while, it’s okay to open up the pocketbook a little bit.
A Cooking With Sarah Nightcap
Whenever we go to Target, I like looking at their DVDs. During a previous shopping trip here, I had hit the jackpot and found a $5 DVD of Apocalypse Now. Sarah threw me a bone and went over to look at DVDs too. We didn’t have luck in the movie department this time, but we did walk out with the full series of Newsroom — a continuation of my fanaticism over Aaron Sorkin. Ever since that night, Sarah and I have been watching through the show…together.
But, since it was a Sunday, we couldn’t end the night without some type of cooking tie-in. Sarah is a big fan of Ayesha Curry, and a passing trip through the kitchen section served up a jackpot of its own right. We found a set of Ayesha Curry spatulas, at which point Sarah started dancing and gesticulating in the aisle. I kid, but she was pretty excited regardless. We put them in our basket and made our way to the checkout.
The next day, we went back to Old Navy for shopping round two. Sarah found a few more outfits, I actually bought a pair of pants and we even bought matching winter vests.
When we got to the car, we had more stuff. But it wasn’t about the material possessions. Even after the Goodwill trip, we have enough stuff. No, this shopping trip was about pouring into one another after a tough season of work and sickness. It was about showing one another that we matter to each other.
And now, whenever we put on our vests, turn on an episode of the Newsroom or use our fancy new spatulas, we’ll remember that we’re in this together.
And I think that’s worth all the money in the world.
