From My Front Porch - May 17, 2013

Welcome back to my new blog series, From my Front Porch, where I share weekly updates from my home and family. My hope is that you'll fix yourself a cup of coffee or tea, or perhaps even a glass of lemonade, and imagine us sitting together on my front porch, chatting about life and catching up on the latest news!  I hope you'll join me each Friday on My Front Porch!  

Around the House

I am continuing to make progress around the house. With my hubby and three of my sons on a trip this past week, I redeemed the time by conquering the boxes and piles in my bedroom and closet!  I'm not totally done in there . . . but it actually looks like a bedroom now, instead of a war zone, and the closet looks pretty neat and organized, which was a fantastic surprise for my husband!  :)

I still have a Huge Mess to tackle in the Bonus Room - but let's just dwell on my victories for right now!  ;)

Last week, I took you in the front door and showed you my foyer and my family photo wall going up the stairs.  Today I want you to look to the right when you walk in the front door and you will see the "music room."

  

This narrow room is a little too small to really be called a living room.  A parlour perhaps??  It served the former owners well as a home office, and is serving us well as a music room.  My oldest daughter, Tiffany, is a serious pianist who practices several hours a day as she prepares for her grad school auditions.  The best thing about this room is that it is somewhat separated from the rest of the house and has a door!!  ;)

It also contains a sleeper sofa, so we could tuck in a guest or two in this cozy little room (as long as they don't mind waking up to four-octave scales and finger-strengthening exercises at 5 am)!  ;)

Family News

Did you get the exciting news I shared last week?!?  If you missed that announcement, maybe this picture of Kristi will give you a subtle hint!  ;)

What a perfect Christmas present for us all to enjoy this year!  :)  I'm looking forward to being a Grandmother!  I hear it is so much fun!  The kids are all excited about becoming aunts and uncles, too!  Everyone is happy about the news, except for Bethany!!  She has told me more than once, "Mommy, I don't want you to be a Grandma, because Grandmas are old! I don't want my Mommy to be old!"  I'm guessing that in her mind, I will look something like this as soon as I become a grandma . . .

photo credit

Ha ha!  ;)

Thankfully, I'm not that old yet!  :)  Actually, the new "Grandpa" did get a year older this week!  ;)  His birthday was Saturday, which he celebrated with three of the boys in an Amish restaurant in Pennsylvania!  :)  

Here at home, Saturday was a beautiful day! First thing that morning I opened the door to the front porch and found this magnificent miniature rose:

Isn't it beautiful??  At first, it was a mystery!!  I really had no idea who it was from!  Then, Tiffany discovered a message that I had missed -- it was from Tyler!!  The note was so sweet and it really touched my heart that Tyler got me a gift for Mother's Day!  What an incredibly thoughtful thing to do!!!  :)  It has definitely been a blessing having him live with us the past year! This picture is from his birthday celebration back in April.

The pressure was on for my kids!  :)  They couldn't be outdone by Tyler!  ;)  Don't worry - they surprised me with a pretty shirt, some cute earrings, and these lovely plants for my front porch sanctuary.

Saturday afternoon, Hannah and Bethany and I attended a lovely Ladies Luncheon at our church. 

I even won one of the door prizes -- this beautiful planter! 

Sunday was Mother's Day, and the kids that were in town treated me to a nice lunch at Outback Steakhouse after church.  We had a fabulous time of fellowship and feasting!  After dinner, we gathered at the beach and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon. It was really a fabulous day!!!  Here is a picture of me with my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter, which was taken while we waited outside for a table.  I love this picture!

Sunday was also Josh and Kristi's very first wedding anniversary!  So exciting to see them reach this first milestone!  

That wasn't the only milestone celebrated this week, however! Alan and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on Tuesday!  It's a little tricky being the "new 30" and also celebrating our 30th anniversary, but we managed to pull it off!  ;)  I spent the day cleaning house, making a blueberry pound cake, and just putzing around in the house trying to make it look inviting for my hubby's return from a week-long trip to Pennsylvania.

That evening, he took me out for a very nice dinner at Bonefish Grill, and then we walked along the shore and sat on a bench where we could chat to the backdrop of crashing ocean waves.  Then we finished off the evening with a cup of coffee at our favorite coffee shop.  We had a fabulous evening together, and I think it was even more special since I was so glad to see him after a week of being apart!  :)

So, that was my week!  A busy week full of blessings!  How was your week??

Please join me again next Friday on my front porch!!





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Happy Anniversary!!!!

Happy Anniversary to . . .


ME and my amazing husband of 30 Years!!!  

{I can't believe it has been thirty years since we said, "I do!"  No one warned us the years would speed by as quickly as they have!}

These pictures were taken on May 14, 1983 ~ one of the happiest days of my life!  I had no idea at that time what a real treasure I was getting ~ a man of integrity and honor who would be hard working and faithful through times of joy and celebration, times of intense testing and tears, and all the many routine, "real life" days in between.  This man has loved me through ten pregnancies and births (including two home births), plus a couple miscarriages along the way!  :)  He has continued to love me and tell me I'm beautiful, even though my body will never be the same!  ;)

God has been so gracious to us, giving us so much more than we ever imagined or deserved!  {We certainly never imagined having ten children!}

Have our lives been perfect??  Of course not!  We've made many mistakes through the years, and have endured many challenges and heartaches, just like any other couple. Most of our friends who got married back in those days have long since parted ways. What is our secret??  Love. Commitment. Forgiveness.  Choosing to follow God's ways.

Forgiveness is huge. Consider this verse:

Proverbs 17:9 says, "He {she} who covers and forgives an offense seeks love, but he {she} who repeats and harps on a matter separates even close friends."  

We have chosen to forgive and forget any offenses and to just keep loving and living life together, seeking to always glorify God in our home and family.

The result?

A happy marriage and a beautiful family that loves God and each other!  That is more than I could have ever dreamed of thirty years ago!!  I am truly blessed!  :)



"And to think it all began when two people fell in love . . ." 

The entire family on Josh and Kristi's wedding day, May 12, 2012.  
Yes, we aren't the only ones celebrating an anniversary!  :)

Marriage Monday: When Your Prince Acts Like a Frog! {Link up}

Welcome back to Marriage Monday! Did you catch my post last week on Avoiding Unrealistic Expectations in Marriage?  It is so easy to enter into marriage with starry-eyed notions. Let's face it, we all have unrealistic expectations about life in general! For example, I expected my Internet to be working this weekend, which it wasn't.  I also expected the Marriage Monday post for today that I started last week to still be waiting for me in my Drafts folder for me to quickly finish this morning.  Of course, it wasn't there!  I also expected my blog button to be working, which you may have already discovered wasn't the case!  Yes, daily life is full of many unexpected trials, delays, disappointments and difficulties, so of course, we shouldn't expect the marriage of two imperfect individuals to be any different.  But somehow we do!

As young brides we often expect our handsome, young husbands to be our "knights in shining armor," saving us from all of our problems!  Even if we notice a few "warts" during our dating or courtship, we expect those to all disappear when we say, "I do," because we fully expect that frog to become our Prince Charming!  In real life, our Prince may continue to exhibit a few frog-like characteristics for the rest of his life!  The real test of our commitment and love is whether we are willing to treat him like a Prince even if he sometimes acts like a frog!

photo credit

Many of the disappointments that women (and men) face in marriage are a result of not understanding the differences between men and women.  I love the way Virginia Fugate explains this in her excellent book, On the Other Side of the Garden:

Courtship days are probably one of the happiest times of a woman's life, because she and her future husband spend a great deal of time together. During this time a woman's future husband becomes the center of her life. She usually assumes that her fiancee wants to make her the center of her life as well. Therefore, when after the wedding her husband's pursuit ceases somewhat, or even altogether,  she may become confused and hurt. Because he no longer does the things he did while they dated, she may begin to feel that her husband doesn't love her anymore. A wife can overcome many of her disappointments when she accepts that her husband's drives in their relationship are not, nor ever will be, identical to her own. 
In contrast to a woman's desire to make her man the center of her life, a man's major drive is to lead, protect and provide for his family. However, such responsibility is an extremely difficult, lonely and discouraging task. Therefore, a man's goal during courtship is to identify and to secure a supportive helpmate and companion. He feels a strong need for a wife to ease his loneliness and to support his responsibility. A man is attracted to the woman who supports his dreams for the future and the one who encourages him during the times he feels like giving up. Once a man has married, the objective of winning the woman of his choice is completed and the husband is ready to move on to conquer his main pursuits -- that of protecting and providing for his family. Furthermore, he expects his wife to move on to become his helpmate -- that is to help make his task less lonely and difficult. He too, may feel puzzled when he discovers that his wife wants to continue the activities of courtship, rather than to move on to other goals of living. This fact may not be very flattering to a woman's romantic, feminine soul, but men are motivated more by goals than by their emotions. It isn't that a man is totally void of any emotional desire for intimacy; however, developing close relationships is not usually a goal a man actively works to achieve."

I'm curious what you think of this quote? Did you find this to be true in your marriage?  Did your husband change his focus from pursuing you and winning your heart to providing for and protecting you after you got married??  With so much role confusion these days, I wonder if this changes the way men interact with their wives and what their expectations are.  I know that many men enter marriage expecting their wives to help provide for the family. Many women may enter marriage with that expectation as well. I think that women still like being protected by their man. Is that true? I realize that young men are being trained to be more sensitive and relationship-oriented than in the past. However, the basic nature of men and women has not changed, and the roles that God designed are still the pattern for success.  


Your Turn to Share:

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Did you find married life to be different from what you expected?  Did your husband treat you differently after you were married?  Did you sense him turning his focus away from "winning you" and towards his career?  or other goals?  How have you adjusted your expectations to fit reality? What do you do when your Prince acts like a Frog??  I'd love your feedback on any of these topics! Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment here or over on my Facebook page, so we might all be encouraged and built up as wives!


If you were blessed or encouraged by this post, please consider sharing it with your friends on Facebook or other social media sites.  Thank you!


Link up:

I'd love to have you link up your blog to mine!  Please link up any past or present posts related to Christian marriage.  Don't forget to link back to my blog!  Thanks!

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Blogs I link up with from week to week:

From My Front Porch

After mentioning the idea several weeks ago and receiving some encouragement to "go for it," I've decided to add a new weekly series to my blog called, "From my Front Porch."  I will use this series to share updates from my home and family each week.  I hope you'll like it!  My hope is that you'll fix yourself a cup of coffee or tea, or perhaps even a glass of lemonade, and imagine us sitting together on my front porch, chatting about life and catching up!  I hope you'll join me each Friday on My Front Porch!  

Around the House

I am continuing to unpack boxes, hang pictures, and get organized and settled into our new house. It is definitely a process!  Some areas are looking pretty good . . . and some still need lots of work!  The two biggest messes are in my bedroom and closet, where everything I don't know what to do with ends up, and in the bonus room, where books, papers, puzzles, science supplies, and other school stuff from more than two decades of homeschooling need to be sorted through, gotten rid of, and/or organized and put away.  It's a Big Job and one that I may not get to until our schedule slows down a bit this summer!

I've been promising pictures!  Should I just start at the front door and start giving you a tour, room by room??  Do you want to see the whole house or just the highlights??  Let me know, OK?  :)

You've already seen one of my favorite places -- my front porch!  I love my front porch and look forward to adding some plants and making it really cozy and inviting!  When you walk in the front door you come face to face with the stairs.

I've been working on my family photo wall -- something I've always wanted to have!  It will always be a work in progress, I imagine, as I add pictures all through the years!  I like creating uniformity by only using black frames, and creating variety by using different sizes, shapes and styles of frames.  So, I have been looking for inexpensive black frames wherever I go, and have picked up frames at Target, Ross, T.J. Maxx, Dollar General, and Family Dollar to create the look you see below.  I really love my picture wall and will enjoy watching it grow and change through the years!

  

I also really like the way this table looks in my foyer!  The table was my mother-in-law's, as was the beautiful floral arrangement.  I love the colors in that!  I've added a buffet lamp I had, a doily crocheted by my Mom, my guest book, and a little glass dish from my Mom's china cabinet that I've filled with some shells I found during our recent trip to Cumberland Island.  I think it looks pretty, and it makes me feel happy!  :)

That's my secret to home decorating -- forget the "rules," and use what makes me feel happy when I see it!  :)

Family News

I've received some exciting news in the past couple weeks!  See if you can guess what it is  . . . 

What do you think of the name, "Marmee?"  :)

That's not all of the exciting news!  Last Saturday, my oldest son, Taylor, graduated from college magna cum laude!  :)

Here he is with his proud Mom and Dad!

Yes, I know -- I look like a midget!  :)

Here's the whole family -- except for our second oldest son, Josh, and his wife, Kristi, who both had to work that day. 

Ashlyn let Hannah take control of the shutter, so she could pose with the handsome graduate!  :)

Graduation photos courtesy of my beautiful and talented daughter, Ashlyn. To see more of her pictures
 or to read about her upcoming mission trip to Ecuador, check out her blog - Captured by Beauty.

Please join me again next Friday on my front porch!!





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