It is when I become happy with who I am and what I am doing that I can open the door to doing anything else.

So for now, I am writing and posting and hoping and praying and holding fast to a vision where I can continue to share and connect with other people.

I sometimes wish they would put on a princess fashion show just one more time, or they would draw pictures and make messes with their paints just one more time.

The truth is, it’s those yucky, sucky, nose-goes moments that show you what true love really is.

The first lesson learned here is things never go as expected. The second lesson is don’t stick your fingers in between the open oven door and the oven, even if all you want to do is clean out those pesky crumbs.

I am learning that one of, if not the most, powerful voices in my ear is most often ME.

But in all honesty, I can handle these questions, no problem. There is only one—one question—that is like the mother of all questions. The one that I just never want to hear and that I really never know what to do with.

“What’s for dinner?”

So here it is…I cuss like a sailor (no offense to actual sailors). Ok, not me. Like not the me that most people know. No, it’s my inside voice that talks that way. Not like the “you’re in the library so use your ‘inside voice’” voice…it’s the voice that is just in my head. And boy, does she have a potty mouth!

The truth is, if I had to do it all over again, there is only one thing I would change…me. I would have allowed myself to let go a little, ask for help, and to not worry so much

To me, being married really is like a good book. You look at that book and you think, “I’m just on Chapter 1…it will take me forever to get through this.” But then you take it one page at a time, one day at a time.

I think the biggest change I have experienced this year was simply my belief in myself and the things I could do.

The truth is, we need to slow down and enjoy whatever it is that is happening.

Tonight, I will worry less about the wrapping paper and more about wrapping my arms around those I love. I will worry less about making things perfect, and I will focus more on the One who is love’s perfection.

Trust me, I have spent plenty of holidays in a bad mood, but I have realized that most of that is my own doing and I can easily undo that or do it another way.

What people will remember most about us is the way we treated them and the way we made each person feel.

I’m going to give you permission to take your moment whenever and however you need to do it.

Be patient. But what does that mean? How do we do it? And how do we know we’ve been patient long enough?

But the truth is, no matter how good or how bad, no matter how full or how lonely, no matter how near or how far, there is always, always something to be thankful for.

“For better or worse, in sickness and in health…” Our marriage vows. So much said and not said in these few words.

Sometimes you just have to let go of the way you thought things would be and roll with the way things actually are at that moment.