Wordfull Wednesday - Caring for your Family

The topic is "Caring for your Family - How do you let them know you care about them? What do you do as parents to show your children they are loved? "Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children." (Family Proclamation, paragraph 6)" Go check out what others are writing at chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com

Hmmm, this is a tough question for me but at the same time it's not so tough. I grew up in a family that was very open about our love and caring for each other and that has transferred over into my marriage and my family. Bryan and I love to hold hands at church, we tell each other we love each other and share a kiss every time that we leave the house, and we end every phone conversation with "I love you."
I hope that every moment I spend listening to Ollie's stories, watching "Little Mermaid," or having teaching moments lets him know that I love him and care enough to take the time out of my day to share that time with him.
I try to live so that there isn't any doubt in my family's mind that I love them. I don't want to have the regret of anything happening to them and me not doing all I could to tell them how much I care or to give one last hug.

Wordfull Wednesday - Unity in Marriage

This will be quick because I have to get back to James Bond but unity is very important. Right now in our little family it has become increasingly more important to make sure that we are consistent. It's been awful to watch our little baby start to twist things between us to get his way. He knows that Dad doesn't like to take his loveys when we go out but mom's a sucker and will let him sneak giraffe into the car.
The best way to stay united is through communication. We live in a time where we can constantly be in contact with our spouses and I am with mine. My husband has a pretty good grasp on what me and Ollie are up to because he gets constant facebook messages, text messages, photos, and he can get on my blog and read up on our activities. It has helped to have Bryan always support and know what is going on. He's fully aware of what is expected and how to deal with things.
Unity hard to break down and talk about because it is marriage. You are united in everything you do - forever. Your decisions will always affect your marriage. It's like plucking a string. When the string is short and the ends are close together if you pluck it then it's a small short ripple but the longer the string the bigger the waves from plucking it will be. No matter what plucks our string as long as we stay close together the effects won't be to big.

Honeymoon: before & after

Since I wrote about marriage yesterday, it reminded me of our honeymoon. I've had a request to see the before and after of our backpacking. Just to catch everyone up for our honeymoon we went and spent 4 weeks backpacking in Guatemala. In that time we didn't shave and never took a warm shower.

Before:
After:

Wordfull Wednesday - 3 Important things in Marriage

I was introduced to wordfull Wednesdays by a wonderful woman in my ward. Meg has been involved in this for a while and I found it when I was reading her blog. I followed the link to find more about it and was introduced to this lovely blog. I've been faithfully reading both blogs and have especially enjoyed the wordfull Wednesday activities. So here is my contribution to wordfull Wednesday.
Assignment: What are the three most important things in marriage?



1- Growth
This is my number 1 important thing. If you grow together, you won't grow apart. This is why Bryan and I are religious about our New Year's resolutions. Every year we sit down and talk over our goals for the year and how we are going to achieve them. This isn't a list that gets shoved into a corner somewhere and forgotten. We take all the steps necessary to try and fulfill that. Everything from posting our goals on our blog, to putting them on the calendar, a list goes in our scriptures and another on the wall in our entryway. They are around as a constant reminder and at the end of the year it isn't how many things we've checked off, it's the journey of getting there. In fact; I'll admit that a lot of that list is left undone and many things are moved over to be the next year. But it has been a year where I have known what Bryan wants to achieve and more importantly I've known how to support him and he supports me. We have things to talk about, we show our love through encouragement, and we celebrate together when a goal is reached.
2- Unity
There are many more ways to word this and many ways to break into smaller categories. Among them are fidelity, trust, and communication. I always want to stand as a united front. When raising our children I want to make sure we are on the same page about policies, education, and scripture study. If we don't agree on something then taking the time work it out and find out how we can come to a resolution is worth a lot to a marriage. We are raising a family together and I know that I couldn't do it on my own so it's nice to know that someone has my back and I want to keep him there.

3- Tithing
Nothing has blessed our lives more than paying our tithing. There is seriously a tangible difference in our lives when we pay a full tithe. All of our finances fall into place and things just seem to work out a lot better. If we don't have financial problems than we don't argue or get angry with each other and I'm willing to do anything to keep it that way.

If I could add a fourth it would be humor, but that isn't the assignment so forget I said anything about it.

Bryan and I have only been married for 2 1/2 years but it's been a doozy. Through that short time we have been through a lot. Already, Bryan has graduated from college, we had a beautiful baby, we moved across the country from our parents, started a new job, and bought a house. Just to name a few of the big ones. Among our smaller achievements have been to make new friends, go to Germany, get a YMCA membership, and host our first Thanksgiving where I cooked my own turkey. But what I'm trying to say is that I'm no expert in marriage and my most important things are still in the honeymoon stages of our wonderful life together but I still feel they are important because, well, doesn't everyone want those honeymoon years back.