It's Back! Husband Encouragement Challenge, Round 2

Speaking from the Heart is just starting Nancy Leigh DeMoss's 30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge, and though I've done this challenge before, I thought I'd hop on board and follow along best I can as we wait for Baby's arrival.

The rules for the next 30 days:

1. You can't say anything negative about your husband ...to your husband...or to anyone else, about your husband.

2. You must say something that you admire or appreciate about your husband...to your husband...and to someone else, about your husband!

I also just started reading the book You Can Be the Wife of a Happy Husband by Darien B. Cooper, so this time doing the challenge, I'm going to incorporate what I'm reading there. I just read the first chapter of the book last night and already here are my three focuses for this month:

1. Focus only on my role as a spouse and not my husband's.
2. Trust God to work in Kevin's life.
3. Love Kevin unconditionally, accepting him as he is rather than trying to make my values his values.

"The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
so he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
all the days of her life." Prov. 31:11-12

The end of that first chapter and right in line with what this challenge is about, the author challenges me to ask myself, How can I comfort, encourage, and do other good things for my husband? And because I'm a person who likes specific things I can actually do, here is a list of things I'm going to work on/do:

* Take more interest in Kevin's interests. Ask him about Jeep stuff and his computer box project.
* Change dinner plans to have chicken wings for Superbowl since he requested it.
* Get up 10 minutes earlier so I can see Kevin before he leaves for work. (which means being showered and ready for bed before 10:00pm)
* Create a budget for my own household shopping. (A few months ago I handed the budget and finances over to my husband since I was being too controlling about it, and since then it's relieved some battles as I've learned to submit to his decisions. But as an organized person and the primary shopper for our family, I'd really like to have some sort of budget. So I think I'll make up something that covers household/food items only to relieve some of that financial stress, especially with the budget about to change with the addition to the family.)
* Ask for a break when I need it rather than grumbling and being crabby and wishing someone would magically recognize my needs.
* Recognize the times I do say something negative and apologize immediately.

So there are my goals as we kick off this challenge for ROUND 2!