16 Years....

I’m going to stop apologizing for not posting enough...because my life gets busy and its just the way it is. I would love to promise to be better but I would just disappoint you. So here we are a month or more since my last post. 

I have been mulling over this blog post for a few weeks now contemplating what to say that would be reader worthy. I’m still not sure I’ve come up with it. But....I have been blessed with the gift of time. Almost three hours of time to be exact. I have two teenagers now and the benefit to living almost an hour away from their friends is that when there is a get together one of us has to hang out somewhere nearby in order to conserve our gas usage. I’m not complaining it’s usually Eric that rides out the wait with them, tonight was my turn and I happily grabbed my purse and said “I’ll be in the car when you’re ready” because this mama plus 12 weeks of “sheltering in place” with 6 children and two dogs needed a minute.  

Ok onto the actual post....

Eric and I have just celebrated 16 years of marriage. I’m not sure 16 years makes us any kind of expert, maybe when we make it to 50 we can call ourselves experts. I would say most days we are just “winging it” to the best of our abilities. So I preface this with everything that I write here is from MY experience, I am no marriage counselor. 

I’ll start with an illustration: 

Several weeks ago I made it part of my new schedule to start getting more exercise. (I will refrain from speaking about how that is actually going today) I found some of my old workout routines and began. I also have a few friends on facebook that are avid runners, they are certainly inspiring, like when I’ve just tried to put on my “fat” jeans and those are too tight, so I look at my running friends and I get inspired to start running again. So that happened, and I downloaded the couch to 5K app with all the excitement that a kindergartener has on the first day of school. I proudly shared my news with Eric and as he always does, he replied with “I think thats great” My first time out he decided he wanted to join me. We loaded up our two littlest in the jogging stroller and set out. The beginning of training you walk, run, walk, run for 20 min. Eric stayed behind me with the kids in the stroller while I jogged in front of them. He did this with me three times. Here’s what he would do

             

                                                          “You’re doing great!”

                                                          “Good Job mama!” 

                                                          “You can do this!”

                                                          “Wow! You did better today!” 

 Eric and I don’t have a perfect marriage. We have had some rough days. If you really want the truth we break the rule “don’t let the sun go down on your anger” way more than we should. You want to know what makes our marriage last through all the ups and downs, moving, leaving family, losing a baby, disappointments, those are just a few of the trials we have faced. It’s the constant encouragement! Eric is literally my biggest fan and I am his! No matter what crazy idea I have he is right behind me saying “you can do this!” “You’re doing fantastic!” “I’m so proud of you” 

So thats it, thats my marriage advice. So profound and thought out! We continually keep God at the center of our marriage and we cheer each other on no matter what!

 Life is so full of moments that can knock our spouses down, we get to be the one to come along side of them as their own personal cheerleader, fan girl!! Ladies be your husbands biggest fan! 

From two....

To eight....

I’m ready to jump into the next adventure with you Eric!!

Just maybe not running....

Love,