Happy New Year! Holy cow, it’s 2019.   I have this idea, and we’ll see how things develop, but it seems to me the world needs just a lot more love.  So, for this coming year I’d like to try and be the reason someone believes just a teeny bit more in the goodness of people.  That’s a rather vague and hard to measure resolution, huh?

What if I spend a few minutes each day typing up a little love bomb about a terrific person and point them out to you?  Could I perhaps even come up with a different one to share everyday this year?  That seems like a long shot for a girl with my utter lack of discipline and perseverance in most things…but that’s the goal.  It’s my column, so the rules are all mine, but my intention is to choose 365 people that I know and people that I don’t, but who somehow stand out in my day.  Maybe, you’ll be inspired by the awesomeness of one of them, or perhaps you might read and start looking for people that shine in your little circle and find your heart feeling much more full of all things good and holy?  Would that make the world just a little brighter in 2019?  

Let’s give it a whirl.

Day 1 of 365:   MAD FOR….TOM

I don’t usually write about my husband.  The reason is that he doesn’t like it.  The thing is, if I am going to start a year long column highlighting the goodness of ordinary people and I don’t choose him today, then that is a flagrant foul on me.

You see, Tom’s been home for a week.  He’s an antsy sort of human.  Most of the year, the need to “do something” is satisfied on the golf course.  Unfortunately for him, it’s December in Indiana, so that’s not an option.  Instead, he used his culinary talents to smoke us beef tenderloin on Christmas, and he snuck $100 bills into the stockings of three young men who were thrilled to receive the unexpected windfall.  He spent a day cooking Ina Garten’s jambalaya (OH MY GOSH YUM) and then followed it up with a tailgate food fest fit for a basement full of Boilermakers (RIP, Purdue).

He wrapped up his laptop and put my name on the box for Christmas, a symbolic gesture to let me know he wanted to gift me new computer of my choosing.  He called me out for frowning as we attempted to return an ill-fitting sweater, but forgave me, when I was way too cranky anyway at the Castleton Square Mall– a place I have sworn to never visit again.  Based on that experience, I’ll call the time of death on retail shopping…but I digress.

Tom labored over homemade chicken pot pie, and he played 20 rounds of Wizard with me and Zach.  He made sure the tuition bills at Xavier and Purdue were handled.  He went to Kroger.  There were multiple trips.  Did you catch that last one?  HE WENT TO KROGER.  Do you have any idea how much I loathe Kroger and their assumption that I want to be an employee of their grocery establishment?  If you know me at all, then you know how happy I was to skip even a single trip to that god-forsaken place.  Yeah Tom!!

This evening, we’ll be holding the 5th annual “OCTAGONATHON”.  It’s a family tradition instituted by my husband.  I think.  If he isn’t the creative genius behind it, he is certainly the presenting sponsor!  There are 8 events ranging from Ping Pong to Jenga and the Thieme men take it very seriously.  There are also serious prizes.  My personal goal is to not finish last.

The point of my tribute today is to just say this.  Tom Thieme wins PLAYER OF THE WEEK honors here at 5350 Randolph Crescent.  We are blessed to call him ours.

I love you, Tom.  Happy New Year!

P.S.  Live Tweeting (@shellythieme) is a thing for the Octagonathon for those of you who enjoy following along from home.