It's a gorgeous spring Sunday here in Wisconsin. The skies are blue, the sun is beaming, and it's nearly 70 degrees. This is basically perfection here in cheese land.
Speaking of cheese, I just polished off a personal sized plate of basil tomato cheddar cheese and crackers. Oh. Em. Gee. Yummo. And I have my Blue Moon with an orange peel (or two) to my right. Mmmm. I love weekends.
The hubby is off playing ultimate frisbee and, while I love watching him play, my soul is absolutely craving some alone time today. It's hard to come by these days, and I'm okay with that, but occasionally i just need it. Badly.
I'm one of those weird crosses between an introvert and an extrovert. What's the name for that again? I can't remember. Anyway, it makes life very interesting.
Anywho.
Last weekend we celebrated our first wedding anniversary.
We spent the majority of the time wondering how the heck it had been 365 days already. Although, it also feels like we've been together forever and can hardly imagine life without one another.
We pretended we were rich and lived in an 800 square foot luxurious suite for about 20 hours. We sipped wine and soaked in the Jacuzzi and slept on the Tempur-Pedic ginormous king size bed and watched La La Land on the hugest TV I've ever seen, while watching the lightning show outside our huge Victorian era windows. We had an amazing breakfast of mixed berry & almond French toast, sausages, and fruit cups delivered to our bedroom door and they left homemade cheesecake in our fridge.
After packing up our bags, we strolled through historical Galena, IL and bought cheese (remember that basil tomato cheddar I mentioned?) and bottles of wine, infused oils, & balsamic vinegar. We drank wine from a can and sat overlooking the river and talked about life and argued about dance classes. We grabbed a root beer float and jumped back in the car and headed to Dubuque, IA for dinner. A few cheese curds and a shared burger & beer later, we strolled the river walk along the Mississippi and took pictures and delayed heading home to reality.
We jumped off the highway a couple of miles near Belmont and visited the original State Capitol Building historical site (I'm such a historical building geek). We got home around 8:00pm and browsed through hundreds of wedding photos, laughing and reminiscing.
And then we both went to work Monday morning and he had an overnight work trip and reality hit us hard. But the refreshment, the glow, the rejuvenation, the spark, the closeness, hung on throughout the week. And I'm reminded of the need to routinely take time "off" for just the two of us.
Time off from work stresses.
Time off from mundane housework and yard work and budgets and dirty laundry.
Time off from constantly talking about logistics and finances and health and whether or not the cheese cutter should go in the dishwasher.
(Gosh, cheese is becoming a common theme in this post.)
Time off.
The Bible says quite a bit about rest, amidst all the things it says about work and diligence and perseverance. It is necessary for our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and necessary for our marital health.
When I was single, I could run around like crazy, do all the things, wear myself out ragged, and it mostly only affected me in a deep personal way. Now that I'm married, it affects the person I love most in this world on a very deep level.
So that's why today, after he and I had a very long and soul searching discussion on our living room couch, I opted to just be alone with my thoughts and my laptop for a couple hours. Before heading into another work week, I need time and space to clear my head, talk with God, listen to the birds chirping through the patio screen door here in our sunroom, and just be quiet and alone and write.
Because sometimes, the best way to love my husband is not to sit and watch him play ultimate. It's rest and care for myself and talk with God so that I can love my husband better.
God and I have a lot to wrestle through. There is some tough stuff going on in my life and heart and mind. And when I don't take time, energy, and prayer to deal with it, my marriage is the first thing to suffer.
And that's not fair to my hubby and it doesn't help us model Christ and His Bride for the world to see. At all.
So here I sit. Thankful for quiet. Thankful for alone time. Thankful for my amazing marriage, flaws and all. Thankful for so many things, amidst the struggles and pains.
Thankful for my husband and all of God's goodness to us. Here's to the next 70 years!
Speaking of cheese, I just polished off a personal sized plate of basil tomato cheddar cheese and crackers. Oh. Em. Gee. Yummo. And I have my Blue Moon with an orange peel (or two) to my right. Mmmm. I love weekends.
The hubby is off playing ultimate frisbee and, while I love watching him play, my soul is absolutely craving some alone time today. It's hard to come by these days, and I'm okay with that, but occasionally i just need it. Badly.
I'm one of those weird crosses between an introvert and an extrovert. What's the name for that again? I can't remember. Anyway, it makes life very interesting.
Anywho.
Last weekend we celebrated our first wedding anniversary.
We spent the majority of the time wondering how the heck it had been 365 days already. Although, it also feels like we've been together forever and can hardly imagine life without one another.
We pretended we were rich and lived in an 800 square foot luxurious suite for about 20 hours. We sipped wine and soaked in the Jacuzzi and slept on the Tempur-Pedic ginormous king size bed and watched La La Land on the hugest TV I've ever seen, while watching the lightning show outside our huge Victorian era windows. We had an amazing breakfast of mixed berry & almond French toast, sausages, and fruit cups delivered to our bedroom door and they left homemade cheesecake in our fridge.
After packing up our bags, we strolled through historical Galena, IL and bought cheese (remember that basil tomato cheddar I mentioned?) and bottles of wine, infused oils, & balsamic vinegar. We drank wine from a can and sat overlooking the river and talked about life and argued about dance classes. We grabbed a root beer float and jumped back in the car and headed to Dubuque, IA for dinner. A few cheese curds and a shared burger & beer later, we strolled the river walk along the Mississippi and took pictures and delayed heading home to reality.
We jumped off the highway a couple of miles near Belmont and visited the original State Capitol Building historical site (I'm such a historical building geek). We got home around 8:00pm and browsed through hundreds of wedding photos, laughing and reminiscing.
And then we both went to work Monday morning and he had an overnight work trip and reality hit us hard. But the refreshment, the glow, the rejuvenation, the spark, the closeness, hung on throughout the week. And I'm reminded of the need to routinely take time "off" for just the two of us.
Time off from work stresses.
Time off from mundane housework and yard work and budgets and dirty laundry.
Time off from constantly talking about logistics and finances and health and whether or not the cheese cutter should go in the dishwasher.
(Gosh, cheese is becoming a common theme in this post.)
Time off.
The Bible says quite a bit about rest, amidst all the things it says about work and diligence and perseverance. It is necessary for our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and necessary for our marital health.
When I was single, I could run around like crazy, do all the things, wear myself out ragged, and it mostly only affected me in a deep personal way. Now that I'm married, it affects the person I love most in this world on a very deep level.
So that's why today, after he and I had a very long and soul searching discussion on our living room couch, I opted to just be alone with my thoughts and my laptop for a couple hours. Before heading into another work week, I need time and space to clear my head, talk with God, listen to the birds chirping through the patio screen door here in our sunroom, and just be quiet and alone and write.
Because sometimes, the best way to love my husband is not to sit and watch him play ultimate. It's rest and care for myself and talk with God so that I can love my husband better.
God and I have a lot to wrestle through. There is some tough stuff going on in my life and heart and mind. And when I don't take time, energy, and prayer to deal with it, my marriage is the first thing to suffer.
And that's not fair to my hubby and it doesn't help us model Christ and His Bride for the world to see. At all.
So here I sit. Thankful for quiet. Thankful for alone time. Thankful for my amazing marriage, flaws and all. Thankful for so many things, amidst the struggles and pains.
Thankful for my husband and all of God's goodness to us. Here's to the next 70 years!
