laundry (for lack of a better title)

I argue with my beloved.

over laundry.

Because he didn't do it the way I would have. The way I wanted.

I shut the drying hard and grumble loud so that he will hear.

I see more work created for me instead of my husband answering my request.

He calls out my sin, claims his feelings and I cry tears for his pain, for my pride and ask forgiveness.

 

And I wonder, If I don't first respond with love to my husband, the one I vowed to love and honor, what then? Where does that leave anyone else in my life? I may not voice my grumblings at work or with friends but the prideful thoughts are in my head just the same.

 

And sin is sin, whether spoken or silent.

 

But wait ...

 

If I first respond with love to my husband, what then?

 

Then it will be part of my thought process ... a learned part of my response. Learned on bended, grown from a confessing relationship with both my God and my husband.

 

If I first respond with love to my husband, what then? Where does that leave anyone else in my life?

Kitchen Escapades

This weekend I ...

canned spaghetti sauce and salsa

and made tomato basil soup

made beef stew is our cool orange dutch oven

made tapioca pudding

made energy balls (aka my first attempt to make a quick, cheap protein bar alternative)

but our apartment smells like laundry because I also burnt the bottom of the pot while i was making the spaghetti sauce and i used laundry detergent to get it out, which mostly worked.

It is no secret that my hubby does a majority of the cooking/meal planning for us but whether it is the fall-like weather or I am embracing my "wife of a PhD student" role with the beginning of the semester, i have enjoyed my kitchen adventures the last few days and have our meals planned for this week. The timing of this is good too as my hubby is a little under the weather. :(

Gratitude List #1817 - 
(I wrote my gratitude list old-style on paper the last few weeks) 
- perfecting my chai tea (not too much chai and lots of honey)
- cool fall bike rides with Loki
- a nice date night with the hubby, using a Living Social deal
- sharp knives on wood cutting boards
- Loki's stumpy tail wagging
- wearing the new skirt my mother-in-law gave me (after she remembered that my husband commented that my old one wore out)
- holding my husband's hand in church
- local beef and veggies in a yummy stew
- friends. specifically pie-making friends who have us over to eat said pies
- talking at length about my job with a friend who asks really good questions
- finding encouragement to memorize scriptures 
- helping my good friend knit =) 
- our centerpiece

Happy fall, friends!

Five Minute Friday: Rest

linking up with The Gypsy Mama; she picks a topic and writes for 5 minutes on it - no edits - just writing. Yesterday's prompt? REST.

Go {10:52}

Rest is a fitting topic for this week, my husband and I have been talking about rest this week, which has gotten me thinking about rest this week.

What is rest?

rest: refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion of labor

So what, then, in my life, is restful?

a good conversation, a walk through the woods with Loki, snuggling up in my husband's strong arms, reading on the patio, studying the Word

It strikes me that all these things are actually active - moving, learning, engaging. While I do find rest in them, they are not still. And perhaps being still is different than being at rest. Perhaps I don't know how to be still. Being still is a strange concept it on culture - we are always moving, always doing. And yet, in the stillness I am most acutely me; not the me that is working, cleaning, doing or moving (although all those things are needed and make up me), I am just me.

Being still, being silent is hard. It's hard to not think of what I have to do next, not think about work, not rehearse my verses from Colossians. Silence is hard for me, but I find rest in it. A rest that is different than a talking/walking/snuggling/reading/learning rest.

And I am learning to like it.

STOP {10:58}