When this whole crazy “Month of Me” concept started to solidify, I started to consider “what exactly would I want to do if there was no one else influencing the decision?”

At first, it was easy: I would accept an invitation to She’s Connected even though that would mean booking time off work that I wouldn’t be spending with my family and even though my only real reason for wanted to go was curiosity and a bit of “fun factor.” Same for the Blissdom Canada conference: sure, I love blogging, but how could I possibly justify two blogging conferences in one month, requiring time off work and time away from family? But then I remembered that I shouldn’t need to justify how I wanted to spend my time.

And the easiest part of all was New York City. I adore visiting New York — the buzz, the broadway, the shopping! Even before the wine-infused idea of “Month of Me” took form, Hubby had already suggested that I take a trip to NYC for my 40th. And without my knowledge, he had secretly squirreled away money from the family budget to help make it happen. Then, when Kerry mentioned she was heading to New York, it just all fell together.

But there was something big missing from all this excitement — my Hubby! It was possible that I could book off a day or two from work on my own, but it was impossible for us to take a trip as a family during October. So I set about trying to find a way for us to get some “couple” time. Camping, since it had been our first love, seemed like the perfect thing for us to do together. My mom and dad offered to take the kids overnight, so it was booked and put in pen (“Camping with my Honey!”) on the calendar for Saturday, October 22nd.

But on Friday, October 21st, we still didn’t have any plans for where we would go. We had been running like mad this autumn season. And frankly, the thought of packing and un-packing again after I’d already done so three times already in the last couple of weeks made me droop.

Then I remembered, it’s “Month of Me” — me! No guilt and no justification was part of the deal I had made with myself. So I told Hubby that we weren’t going to go camping. Instead, we’d have some adult time to ourselves, doing things we love and just plain enjoying each other’s company. With the decision out of his hands, his shoulders visibly lowered.

So instead of camping (which would have made a far more interesting blog post), this is what we did:

• Hubby dropped the kids to my parents’ house in the morning
• He then went out for a long mountain bike ride
• I painted my toe nails
• Stripped the bed and laundered the sheets
• Popped a bag of popcorn and watched a movie on the couch in broad daylight
• Then we both drove into Hintonburg and had a coffee
• After that, we meandered around a collection of antique dealers’ wares
• From there, we drove to the market and had dinner, courtesy of a birthday gift certificate (thanks B & J!)
• On the way home, we stopped into the local movie rental place
• Laid in bed with glasses of red wine and watched a silly movie
• Slept-in on Sunday morning