Reasons I love My Life #4

.quiet times.

My life is busy. It has been busy since I was a little kid and we lived next door to the church where my dad was a pastor. Since I can remember, I have been filling my plate with tons of things, and having to play catch-up way too often. Ben and I are really making a concious effort to slow down our life. Some of my most favorite and cherished moments are quiet times. A couple weeks ago I was really sick and home from work for three days. Not so fun to have the funky sickness, but really amazing to have three fulls days off peace and quiet at home with me and my doggy, my bible, a cup of coffee, Amelia and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and crafts.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

My view for three days.

I couldn't be more content.

(unless i didnt feel like i had pinecones in my throat)

I had time to make this little guy.

a sunglasses case for my sissy-in-law.

"a" for allison.

that tree was a labor of love, let me tell ya.

Having quiet times is one of my favorite things to experience in life.

It makes me so relaxed and at peace.

What do you do to relax?

Reasons I love my life #3...

.weekends.

Mostly last weekend, not just because it was Valentine's Day, but because it was spent in the most amazing way. I'll get into the recap in a minute.

When Ben and I first met, we never had normal schedules. He worked on the weekends and I was living in a different city, so we spent time together whenever we could fit it in. In January, when I started my most recent job, is the first time since we met that we have been able to take weekends off together. REAL weekends. Man, its been a long time coming. We are kinda going crazy with the possibilities of all the things we can do on the weekends, simply because we can! Its such an important time to have when you're newly-weds and before you have kids. Its something to look forward to and work towards all week. We feel like we're dating again.♥ I sound old, don't i?

..........

So this last weekend was incredible. Our dear friends let us stay at their lodge on The Riffle, a famous fly fishing stretch on the Deschutes River. Pretty much in the middle of nowhere...but beautiful. I don't know what I was picturing, but I was pretty blown away when we got there. It was so secluded, and the lodge was amazing...heated floors and all. :-)

the lodge driving in

huge fireplace

the view form the balcony

Old fashioned toilets...

the chain is the flusher. so fun.

beautiful. notice the stuffed cougar.

fierce.

The weekend was filled with card games, cooking, laying on the couch in sweats, listening to owls, watching bald eagles, napping in the loft, horseshoes, looking at stars, throwing knives at trees (Ben's idea), and lots and lots and lots of time falling in love with the Lord in His creation. MUCH needed time. It felt like a retreat away from the rest of the world.



Three funny highlights of the weekend:



1. Me waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, finishing, and turning the corner out of the bathroom to go back to the bedroom, and there is Ben..with a knife...he thought I was a bad guy...he was ready to pounce. HAHAHA. That is not a joke. He really thought I was a "burglar".





2. Me being SO excited to do tons of crafts and even spending a pretty good amount of money on supplies...packing them up and putting them by the door to pack...getting halfway there and Ben asking me if i remembered to bring them....



...no. no, i did not remember to bring them. I cried a little. seriously. I was pretty disappointed, but turns out I did not miss them one bit. Maybe I forgot them for a reason because someone else wanted my attention. (Jesus)




3. Us getting a little bit stir crazy around 4:00pm on Saturday night, it was raining outside, we had read all the way through our books, played thirty games of "thirteen" in a row (28 of which i killed Ben), and eaten wayyyy too many chips and salsa to be ready for dinner. So we decided to take a little drive...through Madras, the bustling metropolis...and straight on through to Redmond, where we stopped at a Wal-Mart to ask for directions to a movie theater. We pulled up just in time for the 6:30 showing of Valentine's Day at the 4-plex. awesome. ghetto. romantic. stupid movie though. It was still fun..Ben kept turning to me and saying.."we're in Redmond."




And to top off an amazing weekend, I came home to find out I won Lauren's giveaway at The Little Things We Do. I was so happy because i love Lauren and i love the thrifty little find that she was giving away. hooray!

here it is. cute!

So, no crafts to share unfortunately..But i did have an amazing weekend. Now looking forward to picking up my new shelf from Becca this week, and getting started on our office while Ben is gone snow caving this weekend. Manly.

Longest post everrrr. sorry. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Reasons I love My Life #2

This guy, right here.

This is Ben. I married him on March 29, 2008. Another day i will share our whole story, which i find pretty darn special, but that's just me. All i can say about Ben is that God knows exactly what we need in a mate, and he gives us just that. He is more than i ever wanted. And when i say that, I mean that I used to have some ideas about what I wanted, and maybe some ideas about what i thought i needed, but goodness, I had no idea.

Here's what i think:

God made woman to be complete in Him, and God made man to be complete with Him AND woman. see? We don't really need a man, we need God. But, in His grace, He chooses to give us men to be helpmates to who LOVE us with HIS love. This is a gift. We get to poor our lives into someone who loves us back and shows us Christ's love.

"I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy, I woke and I saw that life is all
service. I served and I saw that service is joy." -Mother Teresa

Does that make sense? We shouldn't really need another example of God's love for us, because he gave us love personified in the person of Jesus.

BUT (another but) if you're like me, sometimes, you just don't get it. So he gives you someone to show you face to face. To poor into. To love you back right where you are. To make you thrive and glow and live the best life you can. To show you how much HE loves you. And sometimes, if you are like me, the person he gives you is SO much like Jesus, he makes you fall more in love with your maker.

sigh.

Just my musings.

Some reasons why i love Ben:

1:He makes me laugh and take myself less seriously

2:We are 110% different, and that's perfect.

3:He forces me to be a better person.

4:He tells me I'm beautiful every single day, even when i know I'm not. and he probably does too.

5:That beautiful thing he says...he also makes me believe it.

6:He is strong

7:His heart is full of compassion

8:He will make the best dad in the world

9:He gets up every morning to walk Tangle so I can have some quiet time.

10:He makes me adventurous

11:He picked me to get old and wrinkly with.

12:He's not afraid to dream

13:He makes me understand Jesus' love more

Reasons I love My Life *1

OK, so I suck a recurring posts. I am pretty sure i have only repeated a recurring post once. So, this is supposedly going to be one.

drum roll....

Reasons I Love My Life #1




.love.(see)

My life if full of love. Its obvious that I would use this as my number one reason I love my life. This is because I know its the only thing I will always have even if all the other things I love go away someday. I will always be loved by my savior. Sometimes I am dumbfounded at the fact that God, who does not need anything, wants me.

"I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindess."
-Jeremiah 31:3

Its his kindness that leads us to repentance. I want to live my life demonstrating the love and grace of Jesus to everyone around me, because THAT is who Jesus is. He is not who we make him out to be.

He is.

perfect.

stunning.

TRUE.

endless.

saving.

love.