I like him.

Due to my selfishness, my anniversary almost sucked. Thankfully, I realized my shortcomings and also have a good catch. Our celebrating was split up a bit but ultimately, we were able to spend some nice time together in honor of five years together in marriage. Friday night (after putting kids to bed) we had a nice dinner at home of: grilled steak, scallops & acorn squash. Michael discovered a new love in his life (aka: scallops). Let me tell you, I thank God for a man that has a gift for cooking food. Spoiled I am. 

Saturday, he was gone all day at drill ::sadface:: so the kids and I hung out at the farmers market & target. I love that my kids look forward to "market" every week and they eat lots of fresh, local food :) My sister, kindly, drove over (from a couple hours away) to keep me company and spend some time with the kids since we weren't sure when Daddy would be back. As it turned out, Michael was able to leave early from drill so my sister stayed with her niblings (including putting them to bed) so we could go out.... alone. To top it off, we had TWO other people OFFER to watch our kids so we would be able to go out. Talk about a God that blesses abundantly. I don't think words can express the appreciation we have for the willingness of our friends/family to be there for us. So sweet and incredibly meaningful. You all truly blessed us.

Thank goodness I was able to get over myself and be content with my circumstances. When it comes down to it, I love my husband. I wouldn't want to spend my time with anyone else. NO ONE else would put up with my crap. And he still enjoys coming home to me... even though I'm a jerk sometimes. I've got it good. 

And I like him. 

I really like him.

Photo Credit: In His Grace Photography

Five years

 Five years ago, I married my best friend. 

Michael, I love you more than yesterday.

Even better, I still like you.

You're still my favorite & my best.

Really Really.

xo.

Photo Credits: In His Grace Photography

A Rehearsal

This day, 5 years ago, I was getting pretty anxious for the biggest event since my birth. I was just one day away from marrying my high school sweetheart. The day was filled with busyness. Lots of familiar faces gathered in one place to help us prepare. Such sweet people that served and sacrificed more than I could have known at the time.

I figured it would be nice to revisit and share some of the photos from our rehearsal/rehearsal dinner.

The boys :)

Father & son- aka: best man & groom :)

Practicing the entrance ;)

Two of them are cut out in the picture but these girls mean the world to me. I know that in 30 years, I will still know that these were the right women to have by my side.  *oh and everyone should have a bell girl in their wedding :)

2 of the kindest, godly, loving women I know. They made that rehearsal dinner amazing :)

These two men give me a glimpse of my man in a "few" years. 2 generations of loving, gentle, caring men.

My mother in-law did a beautiful job of decorating and preparing a wonderful dinner!

This super awesome couple provided sweet music & some fabulous dancing!

This sweet couple opened up their home for us to come eat, dance & have a great time!

Looking back makes me realize how much truly changes in five  short years. Babies in a sling are now in kindergarten, the awkward middle schooler is about to graduate high school, some are now married w/ kids. It is just amazing to think back and realize we had no idea how wonderful our life was going to become. no.i.dea. That night was stressful and emotional but lead up to one of the best promises I have ever made.

graceFULL

Lately, I've been in a bit of a funk. Grouchy. Moody. A true punishment for my husband. When I read in proverbs about the quarreling wife, I can't help but think- my poor husband must wish he lived in the corner of a rooftop- he'd be better off there. Or at least less wounded. This was my thought yesterday when I read Proverbs 26.

Then, I was reminded of grace. Oh glorious grace. How you bless me. How you save me. It picks me up off the floor of self-pity, guilt and condemnation and reminds how much Jesus loves me! I prayed a prayer of repentance. I prayed for his spirit to work in my heart and make me gentle. kind. loving. patient. Seriously, He has blessed me with an amazing man and I cannot imagine my life without him.

And that fills me.
With grace.
I may not be very graceful.
But definitely
graceFULL.

Photo credit: In His Grace Photography

We're in this together <3

---------------------------

This post was brought to you courtesy of Five Minute Friday. A link up that only requires five minutes of your writing time and spits out an unedited, raw post. So set your timer and get writing. This was my first attempt. You probably can tell but it was fun and I look forward to joining in again next week :)

2 Weeks

2 Weeks of sickness. 2 weeks of less sleep. 2 weeks of coughing, fevers, snotty noses, etc. 3 kids and 1 mama feelin' pretty terrible for TWO. WEEKS.

Middle of the night on Sunday, I'm shutting down. I don't understand how much longer I can go without sleep. Frustrated. Tired. 

complain. complain. complain. 

wah.wah.wah

Feel sorry for me :(

M. in the er w/ a 104 temp Sat night :/

When I woke up the next morning- with a splitting headache and sore all over- it was to my emerging girls, sick 2yr old boy and husband. Immediately upon their feet hitting the floor, my girls came over to scream in my ear let me know they wanted their milk. NOW! Did I mention exploding head splitting headache? Yeah, not fun. 

Also, not the point of this post.

Today, I want to give a big shout out to the man I said, "yes" to 4 years ago. When all this sickness junk crept into our home a couple of weeks ago, he was out of town. In a way, I am thankful because he has yet to come down with this bloodsuckinglifezappingcoughyourlungsup awful virus. Wholeheartedly, I am full of gratitude that he came home the day after I came down with "it"... and had a 4 day weekend nursing job. This man cooked, he cleaned, he shopped, he had empathy, he comforted, had his faced coughed in, he medicated and loved on, massaged, he even looked up (and implemented) home remedies for coughs (you know it's a desperate situation when this man turns to google for answers!)... and then praised God he had to go to work today we were feeling much better today. 

No words could really express how blessed I feel to have this man beside me. He is so good to us! MMC, I love you! You are my favorite and my best! Don't know what I would do without you!

My encouragement today?

Sometimes I just need to say,

"Thank you!"

to...

Life Made Lovely Monday {Christmas party, waterfront, flare}

Recently I've felt a bit... weird... reflective... idk...

Like there's something in my heart/head that wants to come out but I'm not really sure what it is...

For now, I'll just share our lovely little weekend with you :)

Last night, my husband and I had a wonderful night of childless ::bliss:: 

You see, his work has a christmas party every year and since they also provide a never-ending fountain of senseless alcoholic beverages, they graciously offer a free night stay at the hotel where the party is held. Naturally, sober or sloshed, these weary parents were taking advantage of this **free** childless night of ::bliss:: 

You can understand, no?


Did I mention, FREE??? 

We stayed at the party pretty late but woke up this a.m. to.....

 :::SILENCE::: Beautiful, beautiful silence.

Part of me would have loved to lay there for HOURS and do NOTHING. Michael, not so much. When he's awake, he's ready to go. No lazy laying around in bed for him. 

Moving slow and taking our sweet little time, we managed to not feed, dress, nurse or even hear a single child all morning. Pushed ourselves out the door to head to church (a few minutes late, yeah that's right, we were late and didn't have any children......) just in time to be parents again :)

One thing I know for sure, life was made lovely with my husband this weekend. We may not have been far from home but it was so nice to have time together. It left me wanting more but we were blessed to have a couple of friends that would watch all 3 of our kiddos overnight and then get them up and ready for church. We are blessed beyond belief. 

Here are some lovely photos we took in the morning before we left.