Let's Talk about Romance . . .

Let me hear it, ladies. I KNOW you love getting some pedicure action on. Okay - there may be a few of you out there that don't want anyone touching your feet. But, alas, I am not one of those women. I would be one happy woman if I could just have my feet rubbed every night.

So.

I've asked Ivan like 1,000,000 3 times in the past week or so if he could rub my feet. Actually, I asked if he could "do" my feet. When I ask that, I'm leaving it up to him as to how much or how little he does . . . beggars can't be choosers, right?

Let me just say this. I'm a blessed woman. My man can paint toenails as good, if not better, than I do. And I went to beauty school. So, I was hoping I'd get a new paint job, after some lotion and maybe a little foot massage. But, again, I didn't ask for specifics.

So.

Two nights ago, 10:00 rolls around, and I've all but given up. I'm laying in bed, telling myself that I WON'T ask again. It's just not quite so enjoyable when I've had to ask numerous times. To tell the truth, in a perfect world? I wouldn't have to ask at all. He'd be asking me, "Honey, can I do your feet?"

But I digress.

So. Ivan had spent the day reorganizing his workshop. Getting his tools and bags just how he wanted them. He was so excited. He pulled me back there and showed me a big, empty bag. "This is my project bag. When I've got a project to do, I'll just put everything I need in here, and it's all together. When the project's over, I put everything back and the bag is empty again. Isn't that cool?"

I was so glad to see him excited about organization!

So.

Back to 10:00 - I've given up. I'm laying in the bed working on some Sudoku puzzles. Lo and behold, I hear him rustling around in the hall closet - he's getting my nail stuff! Yay!!

So.

He gets started. I've got numerous foot filing thingies. You know, the glorified nail files, for your heels? He starts there. Yay! I'll have pretty feet again!

So.

Wait.

Where are you going, Ivan?

He's gone like - 5 minutes.

So.

Here he comes.

With this.

Yeah. That there on the left? His project bag.

That there on the right? What was in it.

Let's look a little closer, hmmm?

Yeah. That would be a sanding block, a wood shaver, and yeah. His drill.

Even closer.

Yeah. That would be the sanding bit. FOR MY FEET!

Be still my heart.

You think maybe that's why I had to ask 3 times?

No wonder he's not asking me if he can pamper me this way! :) Methinks a professional pedicure should be on my Christmas list.

P.S. Guess what? They didn't work. None of them. That 'ole foot filer did the job, as always.

P.S.S. I love my husband! I'm sure if this were our first year of marriage, I would have been just a little offended. Now I'm just. . . tickled. You know somebody loves you if they're not afraid to put a drill to your feet!

And my feet may still not look good (no polish), but they sure are soft!

What a fairy-tale, romantic life I live!

What's the most romantic, or misguided romantic thing your husband's ever done for you?

Another One Bites the Dust. . .

Another year, that is.

Happy birthday, love! Today, on your 32nd birthday, I'm thinking on our life together these past 11 years, and on the amazing man you are.




I am oh, so thankful for you.




This has probably been the best and worst year of our life together so far. Our first year was tough - dealing with Daddy's death while learning to live with another human being wasn't easy, but that wedded bliss helped so much to get me through.



This year . . . wow. We've been places I never could have imagined.

Dark places.

Lonely places.

Scary places.

And hopeful, freeing, loving places.

But we've been through these places together - together with the Lord.


It's been a year of learning, of growing, of stretching and maturing.







You are so strong. I have seen supernatural strength in you - strength to overcome your trials and temptations. Strength to keep going and keep working when it seems like nothing is going the way you want it to.



You are becoming such a wonderful leader in our home. I see a new passion, a new hunger, a new fire in you for God's Word and how it applies to your life. You strive so hard to be who HE wants you to be, and I cannot explain what it does to my heart to see you live for Him, and not for people.

You have become so transparent in our home - there is no better example for the girls to see. You aren't afraid to share what's on your mind and in your heart. You alone have fostered a level of emotional intimacy between us that didn't exist before. I thank you so deeply for that.

You are such a natural teacher to the girls. I hope that someday Emma remembers her special time with you, walking through the meaning of salvation, and exploring what a life-changing event that is in her life.

You still light up a room when you enter. Your contagious joy affects all those privileged to know you.

You're making such an effort to make me feel loved, even when your mind is overwhelmed with work and your responsibility to provide for us.

You are working up to 70 hours a week to make sure your family is provided for. We miss you like crazy, but again, I'm so thankful that you are a man who sees what needs to be done and does it.

I'm more thankful today than I was 11 1/2 years ago that God chose me to be your wife. I'm glad that you're there for every one of those hard days I have, and even more thankful that I'm there for yours.

I love you, Superman.

Happy Birthday!

When It Rains, It Pours . . . or Gushes. . .

Image by nebraskasc via Flickr

take your pick!

Have you ever had a bad day? Not a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. . . just a little bad day? That was me yesterday afternoon. There wasn't anything really wrong, I was just a little melancholy all day. No reason, really. . . I think I'll blame it on hormones. :)

Ivan worked late and got home around 8:30. I had the girls bathed and ready for bed. By 9:30 he and I were sitting in bed, chatting and trying to reconnect - catch up on our day. All of a sudden, what do we hear?

Splash! Gush! Spill! More splash! More gush! More spill!

AGH! The hose on the back of our washing machine had detached, and water was SPEWING all over the floor. Folks, we had a little flood on our hands. A little one inch flood. At 9:30 at night. 2 feet away from hardwood laminate floors we put down 15 months ago. Not fun.

We grab every towel we can find, and soak up as much as we can. We don't have enough towels, so we started grabbing dirty clothes from the hamper, trying to save our floors.

To make this long story short, here is my home today. In the hallway, where our washer and dryer are, we've got the wood laminate flooring pulled up, with the liner underneath it exposed, box fan trying to dry it out.

In the hallway entrance, we've got 3 laundry baskets overflowing with WET clothes and WET towels, waiting for their turn back in the washer. (Wish it wasn't a rainy day, I'd hang them out on my clothesline and get it done a little faster).

In the dining room, things look pretty normal except for the concrete floor, looking black and nasty from old glue that's on it. (Water seeped under the wall into the dining room and we had to remove/throw out the flooring we had in there last night). (Which meant we had to move the table, chairs, and 3 other pieces of wood furniture out of there last night after we saved the hallway flooring).

Maybe we could consider it a date night and we'll feel a little better about the whole thing.

Okay, maybe not.

All that to say. . . I was a little more melancholy after we crawled in bed for good last night, 2 hours later.

You always hear, "Sleep on it. You'll feel better in the morning"!

So, here I am today.

I'm thankful that I have a washer and dryer.

I'm thankful for the roof over my head.

I'm thankful for the air conditioning.

I'm thankful I have 3 happy, healthy girls.

I'm thankful I have a husband who loves me, and gives me backrubs after bad days like this.

I'm thankful I have clothes to wash and mop up dirty water. :)

I'm thankful it was the washing machine we had to deal with instead of a fire from the dryer.

Rereading this, it all seems kind of silly, huh? I am so blessed! My life is not horrible because I had to deal with a little water and extra work last night. I'm not trying to sound that way at all. I was just truckin' along, feeling okay, and this seemed to be that little straw. You know, the one that broke the camel's back? I'm so thankful for the life I have, and the life I live. I'm just a little irritated. That's all.

I think the Lord is working on our pride. Pride can really sneak up on you pretty quickly, we're learning. Sometimes our pride causes us to focus on the wrong things, and sometimes it causes us to make the wrong decisions. So, in the spirit of learning and discipline, we're going to pull up our bootstraps, swallow our pride, and deal with an ugly, unfinished dining room floor until we can REALLY afford something new. That something new may not be exactly what we wanted. It may be a whole lot cheaper, and a whole lot more about function than style. However, if the Lord is trying to teach us about pride, I'm gonna try to learn.

Thank You, Father, for working in our lives, and teaching us humility and contentment. And thank You for being with us on our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days.

11 Ways to be a Better Wife

Image via Wikipedia

Today we celebrated our 11th anniversary. Believe me, we've had frugal anniversaries before, but this year. . . well, let's just say we had to get REEAAALL creative. We talked about what we could do, and decided to write each other a love letter. In my letter to Ivan, I told him my top 11 favorite things about him, then wrote out 11 things that I will work on for him, and for our relationship in general. Then I cracked open The Book and got busy.

Now I don't know about you, but for me, when I read some of the verses in the Bible, I think about other people and other relationships, not my marriage. What a difference it makes to shift my thinking just a little bit, and try to apply them to us. Here's what I told Ivan I will be working on:

1. Philippians 2:3-4

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others".

I hope I'm not alone struggling with this! My biggest downfall is in thinking about my "needs". I selfishly think, "He should be trying to meet my needs. . . I'm trying to meet his!" How loving is that? I'm sure he'd rather me not try to meet his needs at all if that's my motivation. This is definitely a biggie for me.

2. Philippians 4:6

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God".

My husband has enough weight on his shoulders without me worrying about everything and him having to deal with my anxiety. I'm going to try to hand those worries to the Lord before I dump them on my husband.

3. Ephesians 5:22

"Wives, be subject to your own husband, as to the Lord".

You didn't think you'd get through this without this one, did you? When there is a big decision to be made, I'm going to tell Ivan my opinion, then try to let him make his decision on his own. When I'm trying to force my viewpoint, and convince him to do things how I think they should be done, I'm not letting him be the spiritual leader the Lord has commanded him to be. I always wanted to marry someone who would try to lead our family spiritually - yet I find myself not letting him many times. Definitely something I'm working on.

4. 1 Peter 3:8-9a

"To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead;"

I so want Ivan to think of me as a blessing. I'm sure this is pretty morbid, but if I end up dying before he does, how will he remember me? Our time here together is so limited, when you think in terms of eternity. It seems like a pretty big waste of time to be insulting each other and egging on discord when the Lord can lead us in being harmonious.

5. Ephesians 5:33b

"And let the wife see to it that she respect her husband".

Here's another one that's not always easy to hear. However, I'm beginning to see how simple it really is. Ladies, I believe that men THRIVE under the respect they receive. We thrive in being cherished, they thrive in being respected. Although I'm obviously not a man, I think men feel disrespected through our words AND our body language. A rolling of the eyes, a sigh of frustration . . . we can tear them down so easily with this - and turn them away from us. I want Ivan to know, without me saying it, that I respect him. Period.

6. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a

"Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion".

First, am I a companion to Ivan? Do I regularly watch out for his needs and try to take care of them? Can he confide in me, and trust that his secrets are safe? Secondly, am I taking care enough of myself so that when he should fall, I have the mental capacities to lift him up again? Am a being a "team player" in this marriage, so we have a good return for our labor?

7. Proverbs 3:11-12

"The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life".

Read that again. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. I TRY to do good for Ivan, but my selfishness gets in the way ALL THE TIME. So although I may not be intentionally being evil, there are plenty of times that I'm not doing him good.

8. James 1:2-4

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing".

This is not the first thing that comes to my mind when we're having a disagreement. In fact, it NEVER comes into my mind at that time! I'm beginning to believe that if I think of our disagreements as God trying to grow me, I will behave differently in the midst of them.

9. Philippians 3:13

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. . . "

I know that this verse is not specifically talking about the marriage relationship - but it could change your relationship with your husband if you let it! We've heard it all our lives "Don't bring up past offenses". That's hard to do, especially if your spouse brings up all that you've done wrong in the past. Whether it's a little spat, or a major offense that needs forgiveness, at the point that you forgive them it shouldn't be spoken of again.

10. Proverbs 31:26

"She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue".

Okay. . . this one is difficult. We women have lots of things coming off our tongues, as evidenced in this post! :) Is kindness what Ivan thinks of when he thinks of my words? What about wisdom? Does he think I talk to much, that I'm a busybody? If so, then I doubt he puts "Margie" and "wisdom" together.

11. Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things".

This baby covers a multitude of things! What I think of most is - are the majority of my thoughts about Ivan pure, lovely, excellent, honorable, etc etc etc? Or do I think on what he's done wrong, or what he's not doing for me, or the dishwasher he didn't load how I do? Love. believes. the. best. More than that, I think love should DWELL on the best. Do you look for the good things your husband does, or says? Do you kick out those negative thoughts as soon as they enter your mind? It's much simpler than you might imagine. I just had to decide to do it, and I feel the Lord has blessed that attitude. However, I certainly don't have it licked, so I'm committing to work on it more.

I know that these 11 scriptures don't even begin to touch how many we could find that would help us to be better wives. What about you? Do you have a specific verse that has helped you in some way in growing with your spouse? Please share - I need all the help I can get!!!! :)

Thankfulness

Photo by: TheAlieness

We woke up early today - VBS is this week! I was worried about getting us all there on time, so I woke up at 6:00 (okay, 6:15!) to begin the day. I hopped in the shower, hoping to get myself ready first, then concentrate on the girls. Lo and behold, when I got out, Emma and Sarah were up, dressed and fed, and Aubrey was just starting to stir in her crib. I fed Aubrey, fixed Emma's and Sarah's hair, and out the door we went.

As I was leaving, I noticed the disaster that is my kitchen. What in the world happened? I remember cleaning it up after lunch yesterday - but it looks like a bomb exploded in there! We had popcorn and fruit for dinner last night - I didn't think it had left much of a mess, but I guess I should have checked before bed last night. Normally, the kitchen is cleaned immediately after we eat, but I tend to slip a little on the weekends. :(

But I digress. I noticed the kitchen as we were leaving, but I didn't say anything - just kissed Ivan, thanked him for all his help, and shooed everyone out the door.

Fast forward to 1:00. The girls and I arrive home from VBS to grab a quick lunch before we head to the Dr. for Aubrey's immunizations. The House Fairy decided to clean up my kitchen before he left for work this morning! I know - I am very blessed. It was very thoughtful - Ivan knows I am used to being home all day to take care of everything. He knew I wouldn't want to come home after a busy morning to a messy kitchen.

I was so thankful. Which made me think - do I show my thankfulness enough? Do I foster a thankful spirit in my home?

What about you? How do you show your thankfulness to those you love? What are some creative ways that you show others what they mean to you? Please share - I'd love some new ideas!