The Secret to De-stressing my Husband is....

Okay, I told my SIL that I figured out the trick for getting my husband to de-stress.  She said, "Honey, I figured out that trick long ago."  Pause... No, besides THAT I said.   I meant get my husband to cook.  Specifically, pizza.  

He used to manage a pizza chain and even attempted to buy one at one point so he knows all about making pizza from the dough up.  It started with a dinner invitation and tossing around the idea that the next time we get together maybe we'd do pizza.  Two weeks later we have a date booked and my husband is now up to his elbows in dough.  Cause he's gotta do it right, you know.  It has to be 3 day dough.  Do you know what 3 day dough is?   Dough that was made three days ago.  It's been sitting all this time slowly rising in the fridge.  There's a whole bunch of scientific explanations etc that go along with it but right now it's just taking up precious space. 

He even went grocery shopping while I was at work last night.  I had thought I was going to be doomed doing the mad Saturday grocery shop dash. I hate shopping most days but Saturdays are the worst.  Why is it that all the old people decide they need food on Saturday?  They have 6 other days a week to get their groceries while us poor schmoes are working.  But no, they save it for Saturday and then ram you with their carts.  Bad cart drivers! Bad!

Anyways.. so I didn't have to do the shopping.  He bought a lot of stuff we didn't really need or shouldn't have ( like extra cookies) but hey, he did the SHOPPING. 

Today he announced he was even going to make his own pizza sauce.  No sauce out of a jar/can for him.  Sounds great, I said.  I run my errands, come back to him happily tossing herbs around in the kitchen.  Of course he has to minutely describe the ingredients of his sauce and his method of processing the said sauce but hey, he's COOKING.  

Who are you and what have you done with my husband?  

"Honey, are you in there?   Just come towards my voice.  STAY away from the light."

Seriously, I've been getting a little peeved lately because while hubby is a "helper hubby" it seems that all meals etc are strictly planned and executed by moi.  Not only do I have to do it all week long with the children but the weekend comes along and the mister has no comments when it comes to "what should we eat".  Any mother knows that getting up supper, not to mention breakfasts and lunches 7 days a week gets to be a drag and turns into this weird supper creative void.  A black hole if you will.  (can you hear the echo, echo, echo)

So this is a welcome break.  He pretty much planned out supper tonight and it's not even the PIZZA night yet (that's Sunday).  I may have had to help with the final execution of it all but I did what women generally tend to do, jump in and help because we feel guilty if we don't.  

The biggest thing though is how much more relaxed he seems to be.  No getting impatient with the kids.  He didn't even get uptight about small things like when he grabbed the bag of broccoli by the wrong end and a bunch of broccoli bits fell all over the floor.  Normally this would have driven him crazy.  He has been so stressed lately that he's even developed some sort of allergy, he's been itchy all over and it's been driving him bonkers.  Not one single word out of him this weekend about being itchy.  Thank you, Lord. 

Some times there is just too much on my man's shoulders and it's pretty difficult for me to lessen any of that stress for him.  I'd like to but it's not within my power.  

Course our friends just cancelled. Darn flu bugs!  But we're still going to go ahead. We may just have a little too much dough left over.  Fortunately he had already promised his parents some special made for them pizza (like any doting parents, they are convinced he's got the magic touch) so they'll help us consume it.

He's been so enthusiastic about this pizza thing that he's even talking about making every Sunday night a pizza night.  Sounds great to me.  Only maybe I can convince him to throw in some other kind of fancy recipe in there now and then.  As long as it takes days to prep and prepare, he may just be up for the challenge.  

In the meantime, I can't wait for tomorrow night's create your own pizza night.  Two days ago, I would have said we were heading for disaster because dough, sauce, shredded cheese and 3 kids, well those are the ingredients for one big mess and one uptight dad.  Now, I foresee a fun family night for the memory books.  The kids will just love punching and forming the dough for their own little pizzas and, of course, they'll love the cheese. 

I'll let you know how it went and hopefully, I'll have some pics too.