Happy 10th Anniversary!

10 years.

These have been the best 10 years of my life.

You have brought me more joy and more growth than I could have imagined.

More than the joy and growth, though, I’m excited about what is ahead. This verse keeps popping into my mind:

But one thing I do:forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I know that is Paul talking about his walk with God and his calling, but for me, I keep thinking about us.

I don’t want to forget what lies behind, but I do want to use it to focus on pressing toward the goals and dreams we have as a couple and as a family.

The goals and dreams aren’t complicated:

• I want us to have fun.
• I want us to encourage each other.
• I want us to take chances and avoid regrets.
• I want us to do the things we want to do simply because we want to.
• I want us to love each other deeply and passionately.
• I want us to lead our kids well and help lead them into being awesome adults.
• I want to be financially free and physically healthy.
• I want to be a family that loves Jesus well and serves others selflessly.

We can forget what lies behind while still using it to drive us toward our goals as a couple and a family.

So I commit this to you as we celebrate our 10th year:

• God will be my priority (feel free to remind me as needed).
• My health – physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally – will come in a close second because without these things, I’m of no use to you or anybody else.
• You. You are my most treasured relationship and my most treasured stewardship. You are my heart. You are a gift. And you I commit to keeping safe as I also commit to challenging you and doing my best to bring out the goodness that lives inside of you.
• Our Children. Maggie, Jake, and Sam are also my heart. May I be the Dad to them that lifts them up and encourages them.
• All the other stuff: You can help me figure this out.

You are lovely. You are beautiful. You are precious.

Please never forget that, even if I fail at times to treat you as such.

Never forget it.

I love you and I’m thankful for you.

Happy Anniversary  (and thank you for being so good to me)!

 

**By the way, you’ll notice posts being numbered. I couldn’t quite keep to a daily schedule, but I hope you’ll enjoy some of the memories in this little tribute blog. 🙂

5/13/15 – Day 472: Dance Parties Are What I Live For!

If the kids wouldn’t have freaked out, I would have taken a video or a picture of their dancing extravaganza last night to Maggie’s ‘Dove Cameron Radio Station’ on Pandora.

I mean, the boys… who knew they could rave like that!

It was a moment of sheer joy and sweetness. You and I were talking at the table.

The kids were dancing their hearts out.

The music was mildly uplifting at best, fun and harmless at worst.

It was a sweet, perfect, beautiful midweek moment.

These little things… these times when the kids dance so hard, it makes them want to come in and give us hugs and kisses and makes them laugh and smile with each other.

And you and I talking about what’s going on.

These things? That’s what I live for.

I love you.

5/12/15 – Day 471: Talk and Create Moments

I went back and read the first post in this blogging project (although it’s not really a blogging project – it was my way to teach myself to be more intentional in our marriage).

The two main commitments did not include writing a blog post every day.

These were the commitments:

1. To talk to you: During the day, in the evening, to make time to check in with you.
2. To create moments: To be the leader in doing stuff that is fun or challenging or even charitable.

Those aren’t commitments, though, for just a year. It can take us our whole lives for me to get really good at both of those things.

Basically, talking to you is learning to excavate your heart – to learn your hopes and dreams and the things that make you hurt.

And creating moments? It’s acting on what I discover about your heart.

Both of these things… as we approach our 10th anniversary in 2 days.. these are lifelong commitments. I’m not always going to be awesome at them.

You have the right to remind me, though. 🙂 Remind… not nag (I say that in jest because you are NOT a nag at all).

I love you and want to spend my life talking and getting to know you and creating moments that will grow us and bring us joy.

5/11/15 – Day 470: The Stress Switch

I’ve been battling insomnia and worry around work issues.

You’ve been extremely kind and helpful – while also not allowing me to wallow.

This morning, you basically told me to turn my stress switch off. Easier said than done, but that’s okay.

I took it as a call to be diligent and do the things that I can do.  That’s all I can do. That’s all you can do.

Do what we can and trust God with the rest.

 

5/10/15 – Day 469: Happy Mother’s Day!

I won’t make excuses, but it does appear that I didn’t do a very good job at planning the day. I went overboard on the ‘leave mommy alone and give her some chill time’ side of things. We didn’t spend a ton of time together as a family.

But we did have a great breakfast and dinner and you got some nice gifts. And our boys and our daughter went out of their way much of the week to give you sweet things and wish you Happy Mother’s Day and give you sweet little ‘We Love Mommy because…’ booklets.

Just a reminder where it all started…

5/9/15 – Day 468: Probably More Like Mother’s Day

This was probably more like Mother’s Day:

• Sam’s baseball game.
• Brunch at Cuzi with my parents
• Playground time at our new pool
• Roswell Arts Festival
• Chocolate chip cookies somewhere in there.

It was one of those nice, fun, outdoorsy, sweaty, but sweet Saturdays.

Baseballin’

Happy Day Before Mother’s Day!

5/8/15 – Day 467: They inherited my sweatiness…

(…and your sweetness). 🙂

Today was field day for the kids. As per usual, the boys avoided the camera while Maggie mugged for the camera.

But all three of them… dang do they sweat!

I feel a little guilty that they inherited my sweat glands.

No matter. They’re still adorbs!

4/30/15 – Day 459: Our Last Hammock Hurrah!

This was a wonderfully fun day! More fruity drinks, more pool time, and a lot of sunshine!

You were hilarious and sweet and adorable and cute, among other things (as usual).

Thank you again for making this your desired 10th anniversary gift. It was so good to get away with you!

4/29/15 – Day 458: Hammock Beach – Day 3, Pool Day!

We finally had some time by the pool. And by the look on my face, you can tell that I’m a happy camper!

Fruity drinks, chicken tenders, hot tub time, pool time, reading time, and just hanging out.

It was a blast and what we were both looking forward too.

So glad we’re doing this (as you can see by my goofy grin)!

 

4/28/15 – Day 457: Rainy Vacay Day, Working Out, and Chilling Out

The weather wasn’t our friend today. But it never got as bad as the reports said it would get. And it didn’t stop us from having a sweet time!

So we worked out and too another long walk on the beach. We chilled out on the white chairs and had some wine.

Admittedly, I keep having a hard time chilling, always feeling like I have to strategize stuff like parenting and my career. I apologize for that.

I pray that the rest of this trip, you and I will be simply present with each other… simply enjoying each other. You’re a fun, beautiful woman and I’m so thankful for you and that you chose me.