*I am so sad The Challenge is coming to an end, but frankly, I am pretty much out of creative ideas and this pregnancy is making my ability to participate pretty pathetic. I hope you are still playing along. I have been overwhelmed with how much you have all promoted it and your constant comments and funny stories. Hopefully there are some marriages that are better and bedrooms that are a lot happier (and cleaner) than 20 weeks ago. I have been blessed by all of you.

You know how at the end of the fireworks they just let off a bunch of them at the same time for a fantastic, crazy ending. Well, my friends “The Challenge” is coming to an end. I must admit I am a little sad to see it go. But frankly, there is only so many ideas to spice up your sex life I can put out there before crossing the line of good taste (which possibly I crossed weeks ago). I floated an idea past the hubby last week and his eyes bugged out of his head as he said, “You are not seriously going to post about THAT are you?” In retrospect, considering his mother and my mother read along…good point.

So anyway, I figured we should go out with a bang (insert inappropriate giggle here). So for your final week’s challenge, how’s about a full week of sex. Not like all 24 hours, 7 days, cause your kids would start get bored with TV and miss you (maybe). But every night how bout you be the one givin’ your hubby “the look.” By night 3, he will be completely confused and bewildered as to what has happened to his woman (this might happen on night 1). By night 7 he will be so happy, there might be diamonds involved.

Now this is a surprise for the hubby. No going in later tonight and saying, “That crazy woman over at the Diaper Diaries says we have to have sex everyday this week so let’s get to it.” Just spring it on him every night and see what happens. Now, if you want to be really freakin’ crazy, you can take this challenge. Everyone and their dog, emailed me about this challenge, so I only thought it fitting that I passed it on. Let me know if you are!

I would love to know in the comments or over email how you did with “The Challenge” and if it helped you in any way. I am frankly going to start right over at the beginning cause even I wasn’t always so great at participating. If you didn’t do so hot either, don’t beat yourself up about it, just start over at the top again. This is definitely not something you work on for a few months and then you are good. This is a “til death do us part” kind of thing. Or at least a “til’ I’m too old to function” kind of thing.

Let the fireworks begin!!!

We went all the way back to week one this week and did some massive cleaning of the bedroom as the “haven” part seemed to get replaced with “everyone in the house dump your crap here.” But all of that cleaning complete with moving a bed I probably shouldn’t have has landed me on the DL. Being preggo makes The Challenge ten times more challenging. But it does provoke a LOT of laughter so that works for this week’s challenge…

If you sex life is stale it could be because you have forgotten how fun sex really is. My hubby recently told me, “Women take sex way too seriously, it is supposed to be fun.” Now let me assure you when he said that he was not referring to us. I sometimes have the opposite problem and am giggling so much I forget it’s also supposed to be romantic. It’s about balance ladies.

Mistake #1 is that we ladies approach sex as some chore on our checklist that we just need to check off. Not so appealing for the hubbies. Contrary to the popular myth that men are just into sex to please themselves, most husbands really care that you are enjoying yourself. It is hard to feel that way when you are laying there with a look in your eye that says, “Hurry up and get this over with so that I can go back to watching Grey’s Anatomy.”

Mistake #2 is that we ladies have watched too many movies and expect some magical romantic moment complete with billowing curtains and Berlin singing “Take My Breath Away” in the background. That kind of moment may happen once in a while (well without Berlin), but chances are that is not the norm. And I think the expectation that sex should be like this puts a lot of pressure on our husbands. It is more likely that a moment that starts out very romantic ends up with a misplaced elbow or someone rolling off the bed. I have one friend (who will remain nameless) whose box spring gave out and their bed crashed to the floor, but persevered and laughed their way through it and are still laughing about it to this day.

So don’t be afraid to laugh together. There is something about laughter that just makes an intimate moment all that more intimate. Laugh when you try something new that goes horribly wrong. Or laugh when you do the same thing that is tried and true, but it goes horribly wrong. Find a way to laugh about the fact you just possibly had the worst sex of your marriage (not at your hubby ladies, WITH each other). Or laugh cause you just had the best sex of your marriage and you are so happy you married each other. The point is, lighten up and have some fun.

If I haven’t convinced you, maybe this article can. It states that the secrets to keeping a healthy, nimble mind is sex, laughter and dark chocolate. It’s a scientific fact ladies, and you just can’t argue with science. Man, I love it when science tells me to eat more chocolate…

Hope you all had a fantastic Mother’s Day. I got breakfast in bed, a prenatal massage and 2 huge chocolate bars. Yippee. You would think I would reward my hubby with a little somethin’-somethin’, but unfortunately I also got a funky stomach, a touch of heartburn and another pregnancy gift that starts with an “h”. If you have been pregnant, you probably know of which I speak. If not, we’ll just leave that little pregnancy gift a surprise. Anyway, only 2 weeks to go in “The Challenge”. Then whatever will we do with ourselves?

So rumor has it men think about sex every seven seconds. Actually, that is an urban legend. But I would still bet they think about it a heck of a lot more than we do. How can we possibly find time to think about sex when we have so many more pressing things on our mind (laundry, kids schedules, the state of the house, neighborhood crime, whether our kids is normal, our next blog post…).

Maybe the problem is our brain is filled with so much stuff, we aren’t focusing on what is important. It is really hard to get in the mood for sex when we have 300 other things flooding our mind. There is the old joke of the woman thinking “Beige, I think I’ll paint the ceiling beige” during sex. But the problem is we shouldn’t wait until we are in the middle of things to try and push everything out of our brain. Women are great multi-taskers, but this is one time when we should be ONLY focusing on the task at hand.

I think it is really helpful to take some time before everything gets started to clear our mind and think about our hubbies. There is something to be said for “mind over matter.” Sometimes “getting in the mood” is much more of a mental thing than a physical thing. In other words, when the hubby gives you that look, maybe you need to take a few moments by yourself thinkin’ some sexy thoughts and getting yourself ready. Better yet, if you took my advice and scheduled yourself some lovin’ you can even start earlier in the day. Consider it “mental foreplay.”

Now here is the only caveat. We are thinking sexy thoughts about our husband. Not Brad Pitt (and that hair in Legends of the Fall), not Tom Cruise (pre weird couch jumping), not Matthew McConaughey (who can’t seem to find his shirt). No thinking about that made-up super husband you saw in some romantic comedy. No thinking about that long haired, muscle bound guy on the cover of a romance novel. We are thinking about having some smokin’ hot sex with our hubbies.

If you start early enough in the day, you might get yourself  so worked up the kids get put to bed at 6 pm. Your kids won’t know what hit them. I guarantee your hubby definitely won’t know what hit him. Again, you can direct all cards, gifts and jewelry my way. A little belated Mother’s Day present to me