Last week was a really tough week for our Bishop and family. First, my husband went out of town on business and it happened to overlap with our daughter and her babies visiting us. So, three days that she was here, he didn't get to see her. Then, he flew back into town Wed. around town and then we drove our daughter to the airport Thursday morning at 4:30. Yes, that is early, and yes, we did go back to bed when we got home. ;o) Then he worked all day Thursday and I will spare you the details but it was a bad day. His non-boss boss was in a foul mood and he got the brunt of it. Thursday evening he had the yearly ward audit and didn't get home until close to 10. Friday was another fun filled day at work, and then Friday evening and Saturday were filled with youth conference which he attended and was a chaperone for during the entire event. Sunday was a rough "bishop" day that he couldn't talk about, and quite frankly, I didn't want to hear about. That leads us to Monday morning...
He was on mental overload, and I was equally so. I won't go into my myriad of problems, but holding down a fort on my own is challenging to say the least. So, we both needed a serious break and my honey decided to take a couple of vacation days to decompress. Day 1, the beach. We didn't think very well through the plan though because it wasn't until we were in New Smyrna at the grocery store getting a snack that it hit us like a ton of bricks... uh the grocery store was loaded with young adults...why? Oh, spring break! Lovely. That is just was what we wanted to see, a beach full of scantily clad youth partying it up. We decided to head south out of tourist area, and stopped at the beach at the national park south of partyville. ;o) The sand wasn't exactly soft, and we had spent so much driving that we only had about 15 min. of soaking up sun and wind, but we drove with the top down on the car, and enjoyed the wind in our hair, and talked. It was a lovely morning.
Tuesday we decided to use our annual pass and headed to Universal Studios for the morning. Once again, we didn't think about Spring Break and bigger crowds, but we didn't mind since the point was just to be out together, not getting in every ride. :D Something interesting happened to me though while we were at Universal we met these two really cute young couples that were LDS. Both couples are semi-newlyweds, and attending law school in North Carolina. I looked at these beautiful people and the thought struck me that they are just starting out and have their whole lives ahead of them! I pondered their lives and looked at my sweetheart sitting across from me on the Train to Hogwarts, and realized we are no longer them. We no longer have our whole lives ahead of us, we are seasoned. I thought about how far my husband and I have come in the past 23+ years of marriage and from this pondering has come the latest installment of blog posts for me; the "what I would tell my younger self" post. So, here goes, and forgive me for a little bit of repeat on the first couple. ;o)
1) You are skinnier and more attractive than you realize. Enjoy it! If only I could have appreciated my no stretch mark, body when I had it!
2) Exercise now because whatever habits you start young, you have a better and easier time of keeping up as you age. It's much easier to maintain a habit than to start it!
3) Reading your scriptures and saying your prayers helps more than you realize, start before you get married and hold strong to the commitment to put God first.
4) Go to the temple often! I admit that Mark and I have been hit and miss at getting to the temple, especially when we had younger children. I have noticed a strength in our marriage that comes in no other way than when we attend and I wish that when we had young children we would have worked harder at attending more frequently.
5) Chill out! It's amazing how having so many years of parenting behind me has helped me to realize that there are things that just don't matter in the grand scheme of things. In our early years I stressed way too much about cleaning, and not enough on family memories. Then, as my oldest was getting ready to graduate I realized that I had missed out on precious time creating memories. Cleaning and orderliness is important, but so is dropping everything and going up the canyon to roast hot dogs, or running to the beach to put our toes in the sand. When your kids are raised they will care about the bonding, not the cleaning.
6) Let your spouse serve you! I have a lot of women in my life who are strong independant women and know how to suck it up and get it done. (I being one of them) But our spouses and our loved ones want to serve us. They want to help and when we don't let them, they stop offering. I have had to give this warning to my married daughter and now she gives the same warning to her friends. Let our men be men. Let them love us, do things for us, and help us in their own way, and then recognize it for what it is. It's hard, but it creates a stronger marital bond. Like I said before, you love the ones you serve, and you serve the ones you love.
So, there you have it. I think I sound like a broken record, but these are definitely things I learned the hard way that I wish my younger self would have known. Soak it up, apply it to your lives,
and see how much stronger you will be!!!
He was on mental overload, and I was equally so. I won't go into my myriad of problems, but holding down a fort on my own is challenging to say the least. So, we both needed a serious break and my honey decided to take a couple of vacation days to decompress. Day 1, the beach. We didn't think very well through the plan though because it wasn't until we were in New Smyrna at the grocery store getting a snack that it hit us like a ton of bricks... uh the grocery store was loaded with young adults...why? Oh, spring break! Lovely. That is just was what we wanted to see, a beach full of scantily clad youth partying it up. We decided to head south out of tourist area, and stopped at the beach at the national park south of partyville. ;o) The sand wasn't exactly soft, and we had spent so much driving that we only had about 15 min. of soaking up sun and wind, but we drove with the top down on the car, and enjoyed the wind in our hair, and talked. It was a lovely morning.
Tuesday we decided to use our annual pass and headed to Universal Studios for the morning. Once again, we didn't think about Spring Break and bigger crowds, but we didn't mind since the point was just to be out together, not getting in every ride. :D Something interesting happened to me though while we were at Universal we met these two really cute young couples that were LDS. Both couples are semi-newlyweds, and attending law school in North Carolina. I looked at these beautiful people and the thought struck me that they are just starting out and have their whole lives ahead of them! I pondered their lives and looked at my sweetheart sitting across from me on the Train to Hogwarts, and realized we are no longer them. We no longer have our whole lives ahead of us, we are seasoned. I thought about how far my husband and I have come in the past 23+ years of marriage and from this pondering has come the latest installment of blog posts for me; the "what I would tell my younger self" post. So, here goes, and forgive me for a little bit of repeat on the first couple. ;o)
1) You are skinnier and more attractive than you realize. Enjoy it! If only I could have appreciated my no stretch mark, body when I had it!
2) Exercise now because whatever habits you start young, you have a better and easier time of keeping up as you age. It's much easier to maintain a habit than to start it!
3) Reading your scriptures and saying your prayers helps more than you realize, start before you get married and hold strong to the commitment to put God first.
4) Go to the temple often! I admit that Mark and I have been hit and miss at getting to the temple, especially when we had younger children. I have noticed a strength in our marriage that comes in no other way than when we attend and I wish that when we had young children we would have worked harder at attending more frequently.
5) Chill out! It's amazing how having so many years of parenting behind me has helped me to realize that there are things that just don't matter in the grand scheme of things. In our early years I stressed way too much about cleaning, and not enough on family memories. Then, as my oldest was getting ready to graduate I realized that I had missed out on precious time creating memories. Cleaning and orderliness is important, but so is dropping everything and going up the canyon to roast hot dogs, or running to the beach to put our toes in the sand. When your kids are raised they will care about the bonding, not the cleaning.
6) Let your spouse serve you! I have a lot of women in my life who are strong independant women and know how to suck it up and get it done. (I being one of them) But our spouses and our loved ones want to serve us. They want to help and when we don't let them, they stop offering. I have had to give this warning to my married daughter and now she gives the same warning to her friends. Let our men be men. Let them love us, do things for us, and help us in their own way, and then recognize it for what it is. It's hard, but it creates a stronger marital bond. Like I said before, you love the ones you serve, and you serve the ones you love.
So, there you have it. I think I sound like a broken record, but these are definitely things I learned the hard way that I wish my younger self would have known. Soak it up, apply it to your lives,
and see how much stronger you will be!!!
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