In the Wee Hours of the Morning

Tim and I read together every morning.

Since he's been born, Aaron has joined us as well. He usually just hangs out on his Boppy. On this particular morning, Aaron completely made our day just by being happy to see us.

Mini Babymoon!

(A "babymoon" is a last getaway for mom and dad before their new baby arrives. Honeymoon, babymoon. Get it?)

We went away! For the first time ever, Tim and I escaped together with NO children! (Well, except the unborn one.) Our church has an annual marriage retreat at an old castle here in Southern Colorado and we were really blessed that it worked out for us to attend this year. We also went last year, but we brought along little Adam since he was still nursing. I can't even tell you how wonderful our little getaway was! The food was wonderful, the fellowship was delightful, and the accommodations were beautiful. Oh, and did I mention the material? We studied "What Did You Expect?" by Paul David Tripp. We watched the seminar on dvd and it is absolutely excellent, I recommend it highly! It's a very real look at marriage between two sinners with flawed hearts. I can't say enough about it. Tim and I are thinking of getting the audiobook.

Our room even had a balcony! Tim was out there early Saturday morning reading his Bible before he started the day. I was still snoozing.

Love this window seat.

We were so tired coming in the night before, I didn't have time to take a picture of the beautiful 4 poster before we crashed, but it looked something like this.

The colors of the room's decor was so peaceful and tranquil.

Most rooms had wardrobes~ there were not many closets.

My favorite thing about the bathroom was the big, eastern exposure window.

A better shot of the fireplace.

This is the exterior of the room we stayed in~ the arched window on the left was our window seat.

The weather was gorgeous and the retreat had some free time scheduled in so we could walk and explore as we liked.

And because I haven't posted pictures of the kids lately...

A good friend at church (who happens to be a reading tutor) recommended that we start David with some cursive handwriting to solidify good habits for him. Since he's left handed, sometimes he forgets that in English, letters and words are written and read from left to right. We've seen good success with this approach and now he and Dabney do their cursive handwriting work together.

Valentine's Day 2011 -- and 500 posts!

Ah, Valentine's Day.

However, you might notice it is after 10:30 pm, three days after the 14th. I really wanted to have a post on Valentine's Day, all lovey and sentimental. This year, Valentine's Day really didn't feel all sentimental, to be honest. It felt like the Monday to a very busy week, which it was.

My husband brought me roses and a card and chocolate and a dinner reservation (for the 6 of us), though we didn't actually make it to a restaurant. Tim saw the way that the day was proceeding, so we opted for take out lo mein instead. We love lo mein.

Valentine's for me really didn't come until last night.

Last night, we put the kids to bed and Tim snuck out to Sonic and brought back a Peanut Butter Cup Blast for us to share while we watched one of our favorite tv shows that we had on the dvr. And that's it. We sat together with a blanket and held hands and chatted. He kept my feet warm. It was delightful. Perfect. Exactly what we needed. After a long day (or two or three) with the kids, being alone with my husband absolutely refreshes me. I find myself becoming more dependent upon him for my sanity and direction in these crazy days. His hugs can take a lot of stress from my shoulders. His presence encourages me. He's my partner, my leader, my best friend and the man I love. I'm so grateful for him.

Best $3 date ever.

This votive holder was one of the things that Tim gave me for our very first Valentine's Day ever. We were about 6 weeks away from our wedding day.

Something else that has blessed our marriage immensely in the last few months has been our early morning coffee dates. Normally, Tim leaves for work while I'm still snoozing, but now, 4- 5 times a week, I wake up early with him and we enjoy a wonderful cup of coffee, read the Bible and pray together. It's also been a wonderful time to synchronize our days together.

Whether it's 10 minutes together or 30, this time together has been a huge blessing with great benefits to our marriage. A time to read your Bible is absolutely necessary, but if you can do it together with your husband, I would highly recommend it. This time has brought Tim and me much closer together and it is so worth the tiny bit of extra effort.

Hope your Valentine's Day (whenever it was) was as great as mine.