Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Things I Love: My Wife
*** Warning *** *** Cheese and sentiment to follow ***
Mostly I blog about myself. Or I blog about things that interest me (coffee, things I buy, coffee techniques, cool stuff I find and rave about, etc). And this isn’t really any different, but it’s a little different.
Today’s my wife’s birthday. I’ve been lucky to celebrate 23 of those birthdays with her. Meaning, we’ve been together a long time, and what an amazing time it’s been!
Let me start with …HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
I blog about my Bogs and my Bedphones, sure, but if you took those things away from me, I’d survive. Yes. I’d have wet feet on my morning walk when it rains or snows. And I’d have some trouble falling back to sleep when I wake at 2:00 a.m. But if you took away Kathy (that’s my wife’s name) from me, I wouldn’t be able to walk at all and I’d probably never sleep. I’d be a ship without a rudder. A car without a steering wheel. An empty vessel.
Kathy keeps it all together. I have three great kids, which I would
n’t have without her, and they’re pretty good kids and Kathy deserves 70% of the credit for that. She keeps the house running. She makes sure dentist and doctor appointments happen, that everyone gets signed up for everything they need to do, be it school, dance, sports, or whatever. She does the grocery shopping so we don’t eat Jimmy John’s every night. She makes sure the kids have shoes and clothes and clean clothes (sometimes folded and put away), and packs lunches and makes dinner and plans play-dates and sleepovers and all the kids’s birthday parties and, really, all our parties.
Just a quick aside on parties . . . I always have ideas like this, “hey, let’s have people over. I’ll cook ribs.” Cooking ribs is not “having a party” …it’s cooking ribs. Period. Apparently there needs to be plates, drinks, cups, side dishes, emails and texts sent to organize and then, based on head count, decide on the right amount of food and apparently, this costs money . . . so when I dream up the idea of having people over, all I’m really doing is giving Kathy another big planning project.
Kathy handles all our finances, too. Oh, and she recently added a full-time job to the mix.
She’s everything to all of us and when it’s her birthday (or birthday week) she usually asks, “don’t spend alotta money. I don’t really need anything.” Smart. Balanced. Unlike me and my obnoxious “I Love Don Week” annual spectacle.
This essay on all that Kathy does for the family could ramble on. I’m missing things, I’m sure. Like that everything she bakes is incredible (and it’s why I can’t ever lose these last 10 pounds) and she’s an amazing daughter to her parents and I hope like crazy my own daughters are watching so that when I’m old and grey, they bring the grand kids around and cook me food. I’d like to also think my dad enjoys calling Kathy his daughter-in-law . . .except when they might play a board game together. But …ahem …this isn’t that kinda blog entry.
Everything I’ve said so far is great. But as I opened with, this is my blog and my blog is about me. Let’s talk about how my wife is a blessing to me. I’ve said it many times to many people, Kathy is responsible for me. My parents did the work and heavy-lifting for the first 19 years of my life, and then came Kathy. Loves me unconditionally, I know, because I give her plenty of conditions where some might say I am “un-lovable.” She makes me want to be my best. She listens and lives with my crazy ideas, plans and schemes and sometimes, smartly, squashes them, and sometimes fixes them and makes them work. She holds me to a higher standard for myself than I would if left to my own devices. She’s beautiful. In fact, she’s far more beautiful today than she was 23 years ago when I met her. She makes me a better person every single day (and I’m not sure I return the favor). 
She believes in me when I don’t believe in myself. She cooks me food and baked goods (I mentioned that, right?). She makes me want to learn to play the guitar and take voice lessons so I can write and sing her a song. She’s the lady I’d like to take to dinner, tomorrow. She’s the love of my life and I hope she can sense how much I love her every night when she’s reading on her iPad in bed and I’m listening to a Podcast and flipping through a magazine and we’re not talking and I drift off to sleep. Romantic, right? Was talking with good-friend M.B. yesterday and hilariously (or not so hilariously), he kinda said the same thing about he and his wife – life is good, life is busy, and life is full of many blessings, but maybe at times our spouses are taken for granted a bit.
I have this blog entry. I tell you how great my wife is and that you should wish her a happy birthday. And yet, we live together, and maybe I don’t say it enough . . . or show it enough. I bought her a folding bag-chair, a new water bottle, flowers, and a jewelry holder. And tomorrow we’ll go out for a nice dinner. But what I’m going to really give her is more love – because she deserves it. On my birthday, or Christmas, and all other days, she’s the best gift I’ve ever received. Time for me to be the best gift she’s ever received.
And there you have it …the Kathy Birthday Manifesto. I could write a book about this amazing lady. I’ll end with this – happy birthday and I love you*.
* “you” referred to Kathy, but, OK …if you’re reading this, I thank you and love you, too.
Don Kowalewski 
Love it! she is a great person, i am going to miss seeing you both
Happy birthday Kathy!