Steak & Wildflowers

Lounging on a white sand beach in Jamaica for our honeymoon, pina colada in each of our hands, my husband and I decided that we would make a point to return to that same resort at that same location to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary.

Boy are we funny! ;) No tropical vacation for us this year but ironically, it ended up being an anniversary that neither of us will ever forget. 

Circumstances arose just a few days prior so that we had no choice but to keep things simple. We agreed to exchange only cards and, for the time being at least, eating out was not an option. 

It was our best anniversary yet!

I forced myself to be creative when it came dinner and decided to take a step out of my cooking comfort zone and surprised my husband by preparing his favorite meal to order when eating out: Steak, Oscar Style. I literally jumped up and down and clapped my hands when he smiled after his first bite!

That night, I got dressed up in my wedding gown (our little tradition :) and, with our boys as our audience, danced to the song Lucky with my husband just as I did for our first dance, five years ago. Then we all had a dance party in the living room together to our wedding music playlist. It was a blast!

The next morning my husband surprised me with a trip to a Pick Your Own Wildflower Field! By far, the most memorable anniversary flowers I've ever received since it was more than just a bouquet: it was an experience! I got to select and cut each beautiful bloom myself and the boys loved helping me decide on which ones to pick! I felt like quite the princess among my crew of boys.

I hope that when we look back on this anniversary, what my husband and I remember the most is how content we were with the simple gifts that only God can give: love and family.

Lucky

Today my husband and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. 

Five years ago, September 4th landed on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend so this year especially reminds me of that very special day. 

When I look at myself in our wedding photos, it is hard to imagine that I could grow so much in just five short years. Since then, I have become a wife and learned what God's plan for marital submission and love looks like firsthand, become a mother and learned what it feels like to truly love another person so much more than myself, become a mother to a second child and learned how to divide my love between two little people, lost my own beloved mom to breast cancer and learned that God's grace truly is sufficient and finally, become a mother for a third time and learned that while nothing but heaven will ever remove the dull ache in my heart that will always long for my mom, I can experience joy again!

And I honestly cannot imagine anyone but my husband at my side, holding my hand, through it all! 

"Lucky I'm in love in with my best friend!"

- from our wedding song, Lucky

Just a Little Note

When I was in grade school, every once in a while my mom would leave a note in my lunchbox. Until recently, she had no idea how much her thoughtful gesture meant to me.

Now that I make my husband's lunch everyday, I've kind of continued my mom's little tradition. Every few days, I grab a post-it note, write a few sweet words, and stick it to his sandwich bag.

I remember hearing a Focus on the Family broadcast a while back about making sure your husband knows that you're proud of him. The guest speaker said that she once wrote the words, "You're my hero!" on a post-it note and stuck it to the bathroom mirror. While he never said anything to her about it, days later, the note was still there and he had reinforced it with two pieces of scotch tape to ensure that it wouldn't fall down.

After working all day, my husband comes home, eats dinner with me, plays with our baby boy for a little while, and then studies until the wee hours of the night. Seeing how hard he works for our family makes my heart surge with pride.

Last week, after packing up my husband's lunch, I peeled off the cardboard backing from a small notepad, grabbed a few of colorful sharpies and wrote the following:

you make me proud to be your wife. love, me :)

I assumed he would find it cheesy so I wasn't surprised when he didn't mention it that evening. I just figured he had read it, laughed at what a dork I am, and tossed it in the garbage.

Nope. He hung it up in his cubicle for all the world to see! (Well, all his department to see anyway. :) Wow.

Humbling as it is, we wives have a unique ability to either build our husbands up or tear them down. I hope that I never neglect to show mine how much he means to me!

Hard to Find, Not to Keep

"A good man is hard to find, not to keep." - from the book, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Doctor Laura Schlessinger.

I try not to let a day go by without thanking God that I have found my "good man." My husband may not bring me flowers once a week, surprise me by making dinner once a month, or give me extravagant gifts once a year...

...but that's okay because he shows his love for me every single day!

• He gets up and goes to work five, sometimes six, days a week so that I can stay home with our baby boy.
• He goes to Mass with our son and me every Sunday before going to his own Church service. (I am Catholic, he is Protestant.)
• He always compliments me on my dinner, even when it doesn't deserve to be complimented. (I experiment with recipes a lot. ;)
• He takes the time to speak my love language when I tell him my love tank is running low. (Refer to The Five Love Languages if you're confused.)
• He tells me I'm beautiful on days when I'm wearing no make-up, pilates pants and an old running t-shirt. (Which is six out of seven days in the week - not exaggerating!)
• He sends me texts that simply say: "I love you!"

Sometimes it's easy, as women, to feed into the ultra-feminist mentality that is constantly bombarding us and be tempted to overlook the simple, yet profound ways our husbands show their love to us. How has your husband shown you his love lately?

Sharing Interests

I would probably have to say that my husband's favorite hobby is playing video games. Personally, I hate video games. Growing up with all sisters, we were never very interested in video games, computer games, games boys, etc., so I've never quite understood how anyone could sit in the same spot, controller in hand, hours upon hours, staring at a screen. Because, of course, that's not what I do when I watch television or anything!

We've both learned to compromise in this area but during the first couple months of marriage, video games were a common topic of heated conversation in our home.

Well, last night, my husband set up a wii that he's had for years but hadn't used since we got married. He could only find one of the controllers so he suggested we play a Mario Brothers game together instead.

There we sat, side by side, squished onto the ottoman, about two feet away from the television screen playing Mario Brothers like a couple of ten year old kids. I was horrible but thankfully, we were on the same team so my husband was able to make up for my lack of skill.

As I was sitting there, feeling a little bit bored, thinking about everything else I could be doing with my time in that moment, I suddenly stopped myself. I thought of (because, as a woman, I can multi-task, playing a video game and daydreaming at the same time) all the things my husband does with me because he knows it makes me happy: going for runs, drinking tea, window shopping around cute little towns, going for walks, listening to Focus on the Family podcasts, etc. Certainly I could play a fun little game with my husband because it makes him happy without thinking of it as a waste of time!

It was refreshing to see how much my husband appreciated that I was playing with him. Definitely worth an hour of my day!