May 30, 2025 - Friday



Happy anniversary to me and Ben!!! It's been 15 years. It doesn't feel like that long, honestly, which is good...I guess? I don't know. We've had so many ups and downs over the years, but I think we both feel as committed to one another now as we ever have. Marriage is just really hard. You don't think it's going to be when you make that commitment, but it is. Working through conflicts over and over again is frustrating. You start to think, why can't we just get along more naturally?? But the truth is that Ben and I are both totally different people now than we were when we started dating 17 1/2 years ago. Ben is saved, we're both parents, our life experiences and outlooks have all changed. We're just different. We really have had to learn to love these new versions of one another day by day over the years. I'm glad we're doing it and I'm incredibly grateful for this amazing life we've built together. Yes, it's work, but it's worth it. 

By the end of the day, I already started to feel some homesickness! I just kind of wish we were leaving tomorrow. But it's ok. We're having a really great time and it has been super nice to just spend time with Ben! In the morning, we went for a walk along the river and checked out all of the monuments. Then we grabbed a fry at Chick-fil-A and went to the movies in the early afternoon. I love going to the movies. It's my favorite! The movie was fun.

After the movie, we headed to the antique store and spent HOURS there, just browsing and looking for treasures. We love going to antique stores but they're just not a great place to take kids! :) And the best ones are always in small towns, so too far to go to on dates. We went to a BBQ place called Smoke on the Water for dinner and the food was really great. After all of our activities, we just hung out at the hotel for the evening and had a couple of drinks. There was a John Wick marathon on, so we half read, half watched that for the rest of the night. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 3, 2025 - Saturday

Image
What a day! It literally rained from start to finish, but we packed as much into it as we possibly could! We had a great time visiting and hanging out. We had a fire and lots of great meals *brushes shoulder off*. The kids played well together and, as far as I know, there wasn't any drama! It was a bit exhausting, but I'm so glad that this retreat went well. Last year's was a bit of a bomb, with all the childcare drama happening behind the scenes. I feel like last year's retreat was a pre-cursor to our deciding to move away. Not that they actually had anything to do with one another, but they happened in such close succession that they seem related in retrospect. I drank a bit too much tonight and had a really fun time singing songs, while Tony played the guitar. Man, I wish I had talent with instruments!
Read more

November 9, 2025 - Sunday

Image
This is my favorite picture from the whole shoot!! I love it.  We went to CT this morning and I actually got to sit in on the teaching! Woo! It feels like that doesn't happen very often. We hung out in the cafe with friends for a little bit, then went to Chipotle for lunch on the way home.  We spent most of the day just relaxing! I started a photo book for our Maine vaca in September, and tried to get caught up with some other stuff, but it was mostly just a chill day. Jonas and Clem went to group and we stayed home, chillin'. Ben and I got in the hot tub with Ruby and Ollie for a little while, which was fun. It was snowing while we were in there!  
Read more

November 24, 2025 - Monday

Image
Today was a very rough day for me. It's not like everything went wrong, I just really struggled to manage my emotions. I had to run out, first thing, to get my pick-up order because there were things in it that we needed for breakfast. Then, somehow, we didn't get school started until almost 9:30. I started with Ruby and Ollie, as usual, and decided to check in with Ollie while I was reading. Okay, related side note, Ruby can't stand it when I ask Ollie questions and not her. But the thing is, Ruby remembers EVERYTHING she hears. She learns super well by just plain old listening. If I ask her questions, she answers them correctly and I never get to gauge whether or not Ollie is learning. She also always blurts out answers because she's so afraid I won't give her an opportunity to show us all how much she is learning. And I get it! She wants praise and to show me that she's a good student and she's learning. I understand. But, because of her constant eagernes...
Read more