I love my wife so much I left her half a brownie

Okay – I know that is not the most compelling lead in on how one loves his wife, so give me a minute and I think you’ll understand.

But, before going on it will be helpful to have a couple of background details first. Anyone who knows even a small amount about me knows that I love sweets. Desserts are as important to me at the main course. Having a dessert isn’t necessarily a nice treat for me every now and then. It is a regular, the meal has ended, now what do I find to satisfy my craving for sweets sort of thing. Heck, when I go to Jason’s Deli I indulge in an ice cream cone prior to the arrival of my food and then one after the regular meal is finished. So hopefully I have been clear – I love desserts.

The other thing you need to know is Stephenie and I just began sticking to a budget at the start of the year. We haven’t been terrible spenders with mounting debt, but we do know we spend some money frivolously and we just want to be good stewards. Stephenie deserves most of the credit with this one and after finishing our first month I was pleasantly surprised with how things went. One of the areas that I have been seeking to improve on is spending money at lunch. It’s far too easy for me to blow through $20-25 per week on eating out only to have nothing to show for it. So, part of our new budget included me packing a lunch more. That area went really well in January, but I don’t want to pretend like it was super easy. I don’t enjoy a cold sandwich at my desk as much as I enjoy a deli sandwich or a burrito bowl. Packing a lunch takes more effort. More discipline. And since it’s more of a “sacrifice,” I probably even feel a slight sense of accomplishment by forgoing the restaurants for the brown bag option.

Now back to the brownie. As I began packing my lunch this morning I grabbed all of the usual things. Sandwich. Chips. Yogurt. Apple. Breakfast bar. I then began putting them in my lunch sack and all of a sudden it caught my eye. The pan of brownies. You see, last night we had a few friends over for the Super Bowl and Stephenie made this combination chocolate chip cookie/brownie thing and it was great. I didn’t know we had any left, but as I saw the pan I quickly went over to grab one, but as I pulled back the aluminum foil I realized there wasn’t a bunch left. It fact, all that was in the pan was what I would consider “less than one” brownie. I began grabbing a zip lock bag to haul off my prize possession, but then it hit me. I’m taking the last one. Sure, Stephenie probably wouldn’t care. She was glad I was taking my lunch. No big deal. But the more I thought about it the more I realized how selfish I was. I wanted Stephenie to be able to enjoy a little bit of a treat today so I grabbed a knife, cut it in half, and placed my two-bite brownie in the bag and joyfully drove to work.

I actually have a strong feeling that my mini half-brownie will taste better today than a whole one. Man, I love my wife.