Day 5 - Love is not rude

Ok, so now we're getting somewhere because yesterday was the most challenging day by far. As a matter of fact, it was challenging enough to prevent me from writing about it until today. 

Today's dare was to ask my huband to tell me three things that cause him to be uncomfortable or irritated with me. I had to just listen and not be defensive.

What things did your spouse point out about you that need your attention?

My husband was definitely uncomfortable with this dare.  I jokingly asked him what did he have to be uncomfortable about, I was the one getting picked on?  LOL!  Yeah, well, that was gallows humor, so to speak. 

I told him I could come up with things on my own that I know irritate him about me but I wanted him to tell me.  Obviously, he was suspicious.  He asked, "where is this coming from?"  I told him I just wanted to know so I could work on them. 

He told me putting things on the wrong shelves in the fridge because he hated it when he opened the door and things fell out or when he couldn't find something because it wasn't on the right (as in size) shelf.  Ok.

Second thing related to me having so much stuff and not having it organized.  You know, a place for everything and everything in its place.

And third, he got frustrated when as an "educated woman" as he put it, I did things that added more stress to my life like NOT putting my keys in the same place everyday thereby, causing me to lose them frequently. 

How did you handle hearing it?

I think I handled it all rather well.  I admit, it was very, very humbling to just ask the question.  It is essentially saying, tell me what's wrong with me.  And seriously, don't we all already know our faults, our foibles, our idiosyncrasies (there's a reason that word ends in crasy!) but to have to ask someone to tell you what to fix.  I was surprised at his choices though and that seemed like a good thing.  I mean yeah, we've struggled with my stuff for years - I am a keeper.  I work on it but it's an ongoing struggle, but the fridge thing?  Who knew?  I mean, sure, he's grumbled and fussed when looking for things or if something spills but to put it on the list of three was surprising.  And that my stress of losing my keys would irritate him so much?  Very interesting.  I imagine he's thinking, well, if you'd put the keys on the hook every day, they wouldn't get lost!  duh! 

What do you plan to do to improve these areas?

Well, first thing is I'm going to go clean out the fridge and try really hard to organize it by size and then really try to keep it that way.  I'm cool with trying to take one thing off his crazy plate. 

I want to make a concerted effort to be more organized and get rid of stuff.  This is by far the biggest hurdle and as I said, not unknown to me by any means. 

I am remembering to turn my headlights off every time because I've let the battery run down because of it so I can learn to hang up my keys.  These seems like little silly things to worry about but I will do it and I'm sure be happy I did. 

Again, this dare was the most difficult thus far and it makes me a little freaked over what is to come because let's face it, I was feeling overconfident through days 1 - 4 and now am enjoying a big piece of humble pie.  I know this is necessary and I know it's good for me but it is not a tasty dish!