1st Year of Marriage- Relationship Check-Up

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1st Year of Marriage- Relationship Check-Up

Monday is our 1 year wedding anniversary. And you know what? Marriage is hard. Like really, really hard. To quote one of my favorite authors,

“All due respect to the Resurrection, but two-becoming-one might be the greatest miracle ever.”  (Thank you Jen Hatmaker for keeping it real in your book For the Love)

Don’t get me wrong. It’s also amazing, and exciting, and a whole lot of fun to be able to see your favorite person first thing every morning… but I feel like the movies give us enough of that stuff. What I find lacking in the conversation about marriage is real, honest accounts of how tough marriage can be, but how it’s totally possible to still make it work. We hear the really great stuff, or the really bad stuff. But rarely do I hear people talking about the in-between stuff (except Jen, who I mentioned earlier has a fabulous chapter devoted to it in her book, For the Love. If you haven’t read it do yourself a favor and pick up the audio copy, because listening to her read it will have you laughing out loud).

So while our first year of marriage was far from perfect (what even is perfect?), we did pretty okay. And I thought I’d share some of the stuff we did to navigate the in-between in case you need a little inspiration in your relationship.

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Quotes to Make you Think

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Quotes to Make you Think

I don’t remember when I got my first diary. I do remember it was white and it had shiny colored objects on the cover, but I don’t remember what the objects were. What I DO remember is that it had lock. Looking back on it, it was a cheapo lock, and I’m sure one jab of a bobby pin would have let any would-be-intruders (aka little sisters) in on my secrets in 3.5 seconds. That’s why I also cleverly hid it under my mattress.

Bless my 9-year old self.

When I was a little older I started collecting quotes. I wrote them everywhere. In notebooks, on scraps of paper, and the very special ones… in a special notebook just for my favorite quotes. I’m not sure what it was that triggered my love for quotes, but I even asked for a quote thesaurus for a gift once. Yes, quote thesauruses exist. And I got one. An entire big, beautiful book of quotes… about music.

I still love a good quote. I love how a few sentences can inspire, make me laugh, or put me into a tailspin as I ponder everything I’ve ever believed about the world (no, I’m not dramatic at all. Ever.)

These are some of my current favorites. They challenge, inspire, and push me. I hope they can do the same for you!

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Easy Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

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Easy Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

Remember how I started talking about Cinco de Mayo over a month ago?  Guess what… it’s here!!!

If you’ve been with me for any length of time you’ve probably figured out that I love food. I love ethnic food of all sorts, but there is a soft spot in my heart for Mexican, Tex-Mex, and Americanized Mexican food. Maybe it’s because it’s super delicious and has the opportunity to be spicy (which I love), or maybe because it’s super easy to make.

Probably both.

However, with Cinco de Mayo coming up this weekend, I wanted to keep it short and sweet this Thursday with a wrap up of some of my favorite tasty yet easy to make Fiesta-ish foods!

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6 Quick Easy Salads

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6 Quick Easy Salads

I’ll never forget one of the first New Year’s Eves my (now) husband and I spent together. He picked me up at the airport around 6:00 and brought me to his place so I could get ready for the nice event we were attending together while he made dinner. Before my trip, I had brought everything I needed over to his place; from the fancy dress, heels, and jewelry to a hairdryer, curling iron, and hairspray. I was returning from my Christmas trip to see my parents and sisters in Belgium, and I knew that I would be getting ready for a night out when it was already the New Year in the time zone I had just left. Meaning… it was going to be a long night. I honestly can’t remember much of the evening overall or who was there other than two of our close friends, but what I do remember was dinner.

Rob had asked me a couple days earlier when we were Skyping if there was anything in particular that I wanted for dinner that night and even though it was days (and miles) away, I knew the answer immediately.  

A salad. I knew that I would be craving a salad.

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19 for 2019 Goal Check-In

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19 for 2019 Goal Check-In

So here we are.  Halfway through April, which is honestly absolutely bonkers. How the heck did that happen? I’m not entirely sure, but it did happen, and here we are.

A couple weeks ago, I started reflecting on my decision to give my money away in January to participate in the Happiness Project with Gretchen Rubin. I talked about what’s been working for me, what hasn’t, and what I’ve been learning in the process.

As a whole, it’s been pretty good. March was hard since I couldn’t do much “outer order” work since we’re still working on the house. However, I was able to really focus on some specific items such as my make-up and bag and my email account that I don’t know that I would have gotten to if I was able to do the rest of the house. I’m looking forward to putting the whole house back into “outer order,” but unfortunately, that’s still going to be a while.

In the process of reflecting, I realized that I hadn’t given much thought to my 19 for 2019 goals, so I decided I would pull them out to start working on them. Which I then promptly forgot to do… until now.  I know you never do things like that, so forgive me, I can be easily distracted.

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Skinny Margaritas

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Skinny Margaritas

For Christmas one year during college my mom gave me the coolest margarita glasses. The stems were swirled with festive colors, but in a way that looked fun and artsy, not tacky and cheesy.

You see, we’d gotten into the habit of having margaritas the first night we saw each other after being away. I honestly couldn’t tell you where or when the tradition started, but I’m sure it had something to do with my love of Mexican food.

Over the years our frozen margaritas went “on the rocks,” and we started making them at home instead of going out. After all, we were both becoming more health knowledgeable and health conscious, we knew that margaritas were not our best options to maintain the lifestyles we were trying to live.

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