January 24, 2009 at 1:18 pm (Marriage)
If you have even known the feeling of wanting to send your husband to the “doghouse,” check out this video. Very funny!
Even more importantly, check out the blog in which the video is found - Romantic Vineyard. I was led to it by the Metro Moms Blog. It looks like a great blog full of romantic ideas. Not only does the couple post blogs pertaining particularly to marriage, but they also have some great resources like ideas for wives only and questions for date nights.
January 19, 2009 at 8:16 pm (Marriage, The Girls)
The girls HAD to go to visit Grandma and Pappy Valentine this past weekend. They HAD to play dress-up with the goodwill pile that they commandeered from Grandma before she had the chance to actually give it away. They HAD to play Uno Attack with Grandma, Pappy, and Aunt Kelly until Pappy was about to kick them out of the game for giggling so much (sometime I’ll have to tell you about the time he actually kicked me out of the car for the same offense!). They HAD to have an early birthday party for Ellie, complete with cake, streamers, confetti, but no Mommy and Daddy. And they actually HAD to do a little bit of school work (I am so mean!).
Why?
Jake and I went to a marriage conference in Hershey, PA with other couples from our church and several sister churches. It was excellent! Since we really did not get to celebrate our anniversary, it was very nice to get away for a couple of nights. But this trip had so much more! We also got to spend time with couples from our new church, and we are only excited to get to know them even better! It was also very special for us to get some time with my brother and sister-in-law, Keith and Julie. I was almost homesick to see them, since they were the people we knew best at the conference (you really don’t know how glad we were just to have dessert with you two!).
And add to all of that wonderful teaching on a very needed topic in my life – Mercy – and it was a fantastic weekend! You can listen to the messages here for yourself. I’ll tempt you by telling you that the speaker for two of the sessions was Paul Tripp (though I was just as affected by the all of the other messages!). As I mull over the messages a bit more and pick out the main points that the Holy Spirit is impressing on me, perhaps I will share them with you.
December 31, 2008 at 3:18 pm (Marriage)
I think that Jake and I celebrated our 11th anniversary this past Saturday. I think.
I suppose this should speak well of our past anniveraries. We have always been able to get away for a night for our anniversary, usually visiting a new bed and breakfast in an area near family so that the girls can be cared for while we are away. But this year several circumstances led us to set aside the tradition for this year. We had the chance to travel to Maryland to visit friends from our former church. A 7-hour car ride with 4 little girls – very romantic!! And the Gayner B&B would have been a romantic get-away, if there were not those same 4 little girls strewn about our room in their footie pajamas.
We will get a couple of nights away, but they will come in mid-January when we attend a marriage conference with our church in Hershey, PA. Knowing that we had these days to look forward to, it was actually an easy choice to set aside our normal get-away, thus saving some money in this crazy economy and allowing us time with dear Christian friends that we had not seen in several months. I think it was a worthwhile trade.
Still, I look forward to our time away in a few weeks. Jake is truly my best friend. There is no one I would rather be with. No one is funnier (except maybe Karen H.!). No one could possibly listen better to my ramblings (assuming the football game is turned off and Sports Illustrated is out of sight). No one else could care for my soul and direct my attention to the cross as well as this man who can often see my heart better than I can.
I love you, Jake. You are the greatest blessing that God has given to me. (Please forget the whole fight over Carcassonne and the spat over the shirt and just remember how happy these past 11 years have been!) I look forward to the next 11 and the next 11 and so on.
