Search Results for: blog appreciating the little things

Appreciating Your Spouse’s Friendships

Last night as we sat down to dinner, the phone rang. We had a long day out wrapping up the Christmas shopping and doing a huge bulk session of grocery shopping to fill our freezer and be prepared for the coming winter months when getting out of the driveway is sometimes impossible. Needless to say, the kids were tired, hungry and cranky, and I had just dropped a box of organize shelf-stable chocolate milk on my toes, trying to get it down the basement stairs. So, my first instinct was to ignore the phone, but my husband got to it … Continue reading →

Appreciating the Little Things

After a long day for both of us yesterday, my husband came home, and we talked about what happened in each of our lives while we were apart. He shared a story about how he excitedly told a co-worker about a new purchase that we recently made. This purchase was something that we wanted, not needed. And although we got a good deal on it and researched the purchase for more than a year, it was extravagant by our standards. The co-worker sort of looked at him a little bit funny, and he came to realize that this great new … Continue reading →

Appreciating Pet Photographers

I got the brilliant idea of a “family portrait” the other day — Moose, Lally, and I all in the same picture for once. (It’s rare that I can get that to happen.) Moose is the easy one. He’s pretty happy to lay there and pose for pictures without a problem for quite some time. All it takes is a little petting and you’ve got a Moose in place! I’m probably the second-easiest one out of the family trio. I’m not usually fond of pictures of myself, but I’m willing to pose and try not to blink. Lally is the … Continue reading →

Wisdom from the Old Farmer’s Almanac Edited by Judson Hale

I first started appreciating the Old Farmer’s Almanac magazine when we moved into our current house. There in a holder in the downstairs half bathroom (which we promptly removed) was a copy of it. While we ditched the bathroom magazine holder, we did keep the magazine (and moved it out of the bathroom). It was amusing and filled with all sorts of strange trivia and information, such as the bit about the chicken that lived for a number of years without its head, or the best time to plant marigolds. I’ve never come close to being an old farmer, having … Continue reading →

Showing Appreciation to Your Spouse

Sometimes life can get in the way of appreciating your spouse. You go through each day doing basically the same thing. It isn’t until something different happens, that we sometimes realize how blessed we are to be married. That came to me this past weekend when I went away for three days to a writer’s conference in North Carolina. I have never been out of state, away from my husband. It was a little uncomfortable to be on my own figuring out flights and what gate I needed to be at. I have always relied on my husband for this. … Continue reading →

Appreciate Working from Home

Last week I was reminded of one of the great benefits to working from home. I live in Wisconsin and we got hit with a wallop of a blizzard that went from Tuesday evening until Wednesday. I couldn’t believe what I woke up to Wednesday morning. My van was completely buried, our alley had four feet high snow drifts and the side door to our house was unreachable because it was snowed in. It didn’t take long for my husband to discover he wasn’t going anywhere. He tried to leave for work but our alley prevented him from even getting … Continue reading →

The Sugar Coma Cometh

I worked through my Target incident (I’m healing nicely, thank you) and was able to spend Easter appreciating the little things in life. For example, I am very thankful that while candy manufacturers have found a way to dye Peeps the same shade of pink as Lady Gaga’s hair extensions, they have yet to create 100 Grand chocolate Easter eggs. If they did, I’d be in a sugar coma right now. If you have children, then you probably spent the latter part of the day peeling them off the ceiling after allowing them to devour the sugary contents of their … Continue reading →

Two Imperfect People

As spiritual people, we know that we are not perfect. We are merely human and make many mistakes along the way in our lives. Why then, do we tend to assume that our marriages have to be perfect? When you are young and in love you tend to believe that a happy marriage means that the couple spends hours staring into each other’s eyes, doing fun things together and always agreeing. This is probably because during courtship or dating, a couple tends to spend hours staring into each other’s eyes, doing fun things together and always agreeing. Call it the … Continue reading →

A New Trend in Dining Room Tables

My husband and I have been looking at dining room tables lately. We have a round table from IKEA that is really meant to be a game table but is currently being used as our dining room table. It is serviceable, and I don’t have to worry too much about the kids scratching it or causing any damage to the table, since it is sturdy and inexpensive. The main problem with our current table is that it is too small to be used much longer for dining. There are now five of us in t he family, and things get … Continue reading →

Spending Christmas in the Family Room

I am overflowing today with gratitude that we were able to spend our Christmas together as a family. While extended family is nice (and we will be seeing them for the rest of the weekend), it was amazing to just spend the day home alone with my husband and children. We attended our local church on Christmas eve and then rushed home to snuggle in for the night. The next morning, the kids were up bright and early and the adults teased that we just might spend the whole day in bed, leaving the present opening until tomorrow. Of course … Continue reading →