All posts tagged: married life

Mr DeClutter vs Ms TalkItOut 

After finishing his breakfast and depositing his dishes onto the counter, he began flinging wide the cabinet doors, inspecting collections of dishware, pulling out all cutlery, and throwing away pens and twistyties… This is my husband. Mr DeClutter himself.  They should make a commercial of his frenetic cleaning skills. I walked into the chaos as he threw up his hands in disgust, “This kitchen needs a makeover! There are junk drawers, and piles of business cards we never use, utensils we don’t use anymore, way too many mugs, and…” Okay, I got the picture. I started to ask some preliminary questions to make sure we were on the same page, “Is this a project you’d like to do today? Is this something you’d like to work on together? What do you think the five main problem areas are of this room?” You see, I’m the Talk-It-Out Plan-It-Out Girl and he’s the Throw-It-In-a-Massive-Pile-Get-Mad-About-It-Tear-It-Apart-Put-It-Back-Together-Again Guy.  Yea.  So we pulled a little Chip & Joanna Gaines here. You’ve heard them talk about their marriage, right? Total opposites. Couldn’t …

Our Story: Uprooted to Grounded

Today I’m sharing more of our story. How we got to where we are now and why we savor these moments of rest and grace. Some know our story, but many do not know the extensive crumbling that brought about a forged foundation. This time last year we were desperate to move. To move on, to move away. We’d been living in a quaint tiny town, up on a hill in a blue gingerbread-style house, with our old black lab and our young yellow lab, and we’d been there two years since the day we got married. On snow days I’d walk down the street to visit my friends for hot chocolate, and for my midwifery appointments I’d walk to the other side of town. We lived the Mayberry life and we were happily content there, except that… Our marriage underwent constant upheaval. We married late October 2012, Manly left three months later for military training February 2013, and he didn’t come home for seven months; when he finally came home he was detached and …

Gratitude: Moment by Moment

Holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Independence Day are my favorites. Any excuse to have a party, I always say. This is why I love Pinterest! Tons of  ideas for decorations and festive creations. Like that cover photo I snagged from my board Festive | Holiday : perfect little place setting for a farm house Thanksgiving dinner! But I didn’t even pull off small bits of holiday style this year. My hands are so full with my new bundle of joy and my brain is so sleep deprived that late night pinning does not transform into tomorrow’s crafty project. Alas, most of my holiday inspirations are unachievable this year and I will have to settle for instant mashed potatoes, one partially dead pumpkin on the front porch, and our plain old unfestive farm house. Don’t get me wrong. Even though I’m not capable of being Pioneer Woman this year, I am still enjoying this holiday season. Last year my husband and I barely survived the holiday season. Heidibird, our firstborn, passed away unexpectedly, so we didn’t want to …

Camp: Quirky // Kids

I have this favorite blogger who keeps me laughing with every post about her crazy family and inspires me with her sense of style. Grace & Simon Patton have had four children in four years – Julia, Sebastian, Theo & Phoebe – while her husband has been in med school and working extensive shift hours. Somehow, this little family just chooses to roll with the punches of everyday life and the unpredictability of four little children. I hope that they actually laugh as much as their sarcasm suggests they might …

Brevity: Sun & Stars

Twas a refreshingly bright Saturday we celebrated my 27th birthday. We walked around the mountain hardware store so I could drool over kayaks and beg to get my own; instead of hoisting a river ride, we grabbed a bag of saltwater taffies which I shamelessly finished off that day; we visited the local Potter’s Guild display at the city museum and found a little pair of stamped clay earrings; we toured the lush gardens and historical house of the museum property where Ian searched out suitable kissing spots; lastly but not least, we sat through the Fault in Our Stars, which Ian did not want to see but after the main character started talking about zombies and heroes and bloody escapades he perked up, and by the end of that sweetly surreal story we were both a puddle and clinging to each other; as Ian said, “That’s the first love story I’ve liked because it went so deep.” The brevity of life is a fact that we face every day though we rarely acknowledge it; …

Anniversary: One Year Down

During our first year of marriage we have experienced, a hurricane honeymoon trapped in the mountains with no water, heat or food three months of wedded bliss hiking early in the mornings, sharing devotions and prayer, dinners by candlelight, meeting and laughing with friends forgiving, respecting, and trusting each other six months apart during Ian’s hellish special forces military training two weeks of summer heat fun with Ian and my parents and his mom for his graduation from training loving, mending, and serving each other a quick trip with Ian’s family for his brother’s graduation from basic training readjusting, learning, and wrestling with each other a weekend getaway to our favorite historical downtown hotel to celebrate friendship and forever These pictures symbolize the first year of this covenant,