one year

this post is a few days late... but we have now been married one year. our marriage has been, hands down, the best thing about my life so far. it is amazing, loving, sometimes challenging, always good.

things we've learned:

• i am definitely not a morning person. (mg makes sure i have coffee every morning)
• mg is not patient. (i have learned to be more on time... mostly)
• discipline decisions are tough. (and we only have dogs)
• i am easy to please. (take my hand with a kiss and i'm happy)
• mg is easy to please. (baked goods are always a hit)
• we are not formal people. (example: we didn't actually do anything to celebrate our anniversary)
• we (ok, mostly me) are too busy and need to slow down.
• our families are awesome. (well, we knew that already)
• communication is important and praying together daily equally so.

our life together, for better or worse, is going to be amazing.

nothing to say

i am exhausted and overwhelmed today - but our little family brings me joy.

a matter of perspective

me: you're such a drama queen.
mg: i don't induce drama, i exaggerate for effect.

tired

it's been a long time since i've felt rested.

at mg's insistence, i have an appointment to look into a sleep study, but part of me wonders if i just need to find a better balance. i feel so silly saying this, because we have no kids, but i just don't have enough time in the day!

whoever came up with the 40-hour work week clearly had a maid. or, more likely, a homemaker wife. i have neither, and while i'm all for women in the workforce... most weeks i really wish i could have an extra 6 hours at home to take care of all the things that seem to continually fall through the cracks.

six months later

so i own an apology to the blogging community. or rather, the tiny corner of the blogging community who read my posts. i have been very neglectful of this space of mine.

here is a quick update on my life the past six months:

• i applied, assembled a portfolio, interviewed for, and was accepted into grad school. i start classes in a couple weeks.
• my amazing grandfather passed away. this still does not seem real to me.
• i injured my rotator cuff and spent most of the summer frustrated at my inability to do... everything.
• we adopted a second dog. he is wonderful, challenging, and completely different from remy.
• we took a long-anticipated vacation out west. my geek was introduced to water skiing.
• we took on a major landscaping project which has filled pretty much every spare moment in our summer weekends.

it has been a wonderful, sometimes exhausting, summer in which i have re-discovered the joy of being outside, and neglected the online word.

photos to come soon.

ode to a crockpot

there is nothing quite like getting to the end of a long work day and knowing dinner is waiting for you, warm and ready to eat, at home. i'm not really going to write an ode. i'm too tired. but if i were a poetically inclined individual that is what i'd do.

so instead i will leave you with this:

Paean to My Crock Pot (For Eileen)
Oh Crock Pot--
how I love your 70s sensibility.
You stay home all day dressed
in floral charm, serve me
dinner with a warmth
free from post feminist irony
or messy cleanups.

so true

i should buy stock in sterilite

if you know my mother, you know she is the organization queen. i've never considered that to be one of my strengths, but as we unpack things from the move i've realized that an overwhelming majority of the things i own are sorted into neatly labeled plastic organizers. I have big bins for sweatshirts and pajamas, medium sized bins for shoes, small bins for underclothes. There are drawers for scratch paper, for pens and pencils, for phone chargers. Smaller drawers for toiletries, paper clips, broken jewelry (yep, seriously) and tiny boxes for first aid supplies and band-aids.

i do indeed have a place for everything... though everything is rarely in it's place!

it seems i owe my mom a thank you for getting her scatter-brained artistic daughter to live in a semblance of order. let me just pull down that "cards and notes" box from the closet...

six feet under (series finale)

me: aww, you're all teary-eyed
mg: it's sad. what are you, an emotional brick?

moving is a lot of work

new house = muddy yard
muddy yard = muddy dog
muddy dog = muddy hallway

1. crate dog

2. afternoon project: fix muddy yard

3. evening project: wash dog. wash tub. wash hallway. wash crate. order takeout.

the dress

is blogged again. this time on vintage weddings by the knot. check out Reese's dress at the end of the post, it's amazing.

is it possible

for the third time this year i will be in a position to review student portfolios. college seniors. seriously? i'm qualified for that now? oh yeah, college was... years ago. weird.

boxes

it is only when moving that i regret having a library's worth of books.

today

i am wearing the incredibly comfortable black heels i wore for the wedding. and it makes me feel like dancing.

clarifying

so mg reads the blog and he was very concerned this morning. "do you really think that's going to happen to our marriage?" to which i answered "no".

the previous post was a response to an ongoing discussion of marriage in today's culture. a culture that does not value marriage as a life-long commitment. does not see commitment as good. there are endless jokes about the stupidity of men, the silliness of women, the general unhappiness of people who are stuck married. by "what i fear" i didn't mean that is the direction i think our marriage is headed. but it is what i see in many marriages around us, and what i want to be sure to avoid.

i love our marriage, but i also know that life is (hopefully) long. at times it will be difficult. there will be pressures on our relationship that we can't predict. i don't think anyone sets out to have a complacent marriage, but i do think too often people aren't intentional about avoiding it. they wake up one day and wonder how they got where they're at. i don't want to be that person. i don't think i will.

meg does it again

there's a great discussion going on over at apracticalwedding on what it means to be a wife but not (yet) a mother. the question was raised "in your marriage, what do you fear"? here are my thoughts:

Someone mentioned that what they fear most is a complacent marriage. I think that word sums it up perfectly.

So what do I fear in our marriage? I fear falling so much into a routine we don't even realize we have one. I fear getting off work every day and coming home to this: He takes care of the dog, I take care of dinner. He does the dishes, I start the laundry. He turns on the tv, I grab the laptop.

There's nothing wrong with that routine in and of itself. It's practical. I love cooking. The dog obeys him way better than me. But I want to remain aware of what we do. I want to cook dinner because I enjoy trying new recipes, not because it's expected and an obligation. I want him to choose to wash the dishes out of love and a feeling of partnership, not assume he has to take care of them because that's the habit we've fallen into.

Now I cherish these little everyday things of life. Ways we partner together to take care of necessities, things we do together. But I fear letting those things become the big things. Mindlessly letting them run our lives. I want an intentional marriage. One that is brave, courageous, self aware. One where we challenge each other to do new things, even hard things, because in the end those are the things we will be proud of. I want a marriage that is anything but complacent.

now, go read the rest of the discussion. it's thought provoking to be sure.

caricature

the dress

is blogged over at apracticalwedding. if you are planning a wedding, or know anyone who is i would strongly recommend pointing them to this blog. meg and the community of amazing women who have gathered there are sane, thrifty and know how to have fun.

on dog doors

mg: we should push his crate up against the door,
at least in the beginning.
self: yeah.
mg: that way we can see if he's dragging stuff in.
self: *nods*
mg: like small children. and dinosaurs.
self: because those are the most likely options.

i search for "race car"

and the stock photo library gives me photos of canadian bluebirds. yeah... pretty sure something is broken here.