7 Days of Marriage Tips

Our Wedding Day, June 30, 1989, 23 years ago

7 Days of Marriage Tips

 

{Day 7} : Keep in mind that time affects all of us and no one remains the same as we were when dating.  Life's circumstances can make us lose our sense of humor change us physically, act less romantic, etc.  Take some times to find those two people who fell in love and reconnect. 

{Day 6} : Love "Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." {1 Cor. 13} Choose to believe the best about your spouse, even when they aren't communicating well. Sometimes it is hard to find the right words to express yourself. Some folks find it hard to communicate with words at all. Grace, grace.

{Day 5) : Be intentional. Every day, look for a way to bless your spouse either secretly or openly. A thankful, giving heart will repulse the weeds of blame and discontent.

{Day 4} : Greet your spouse with a kiss. It's a mood enhancer. Science says touch releases endorphins, so you begin to associate seeing your spouse with a pleasant feeling. And you can't say anything you'll regret when your lips otherwise occupied. Voila! Mood enhanced!

{Day 3} Make it a point to give your spouse the best of you: the best of your smiles, the best of your touch, the best of your (good) attitude, the best of your laughter, the best of your words, etc. Don't always bring them what's left of you after the world has drained you.

{Day 2} Nobody is perfect. Don't let the world at large find out about your spouse's imperfections via your mouth. "The heart of her husband trusts in her..." {Prov. 31:11}

{Day 1} Be the person you'd like to be married to. If you'd like a little more grace for your faults, give a little more grace for theirs. If you need more love and understanding, give more love and understanding to your spouse.

~23 years later and still going strong~

~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

{19 Things we should say to our Children}

{19 Things we should say to our Children}

1. I love you! There is nothing that will make me stop loving you. Nothing you could do or say or think will ever change that.

2. You are amazing! I look at you with wonder! Not just at what you can do, but who you are. There is no one like you. No one!

3. It’s all right to cry. People cry for all kinds of reasons: when they are hurt, sad, glad, or worried; when they are angry, afraid, or lonely. Big people cry too. I do.

4. You’ve made a mistake. That was wrong. People make mistakes. I do. Is it something we can fix? What can we do? It’s all over. You can start fresh. I know you are sorry. I forgive you.

5. You did the right thing. That was scary or hard. Even though it wasn’t easy, you did it. I am proud of you; you should be too.

6. I’m sorry. Forgive me. I made a mistake.

7. You can change your mind. It’s good to decide, but it is also fine to change.

8. What a great idea! You were really thinking! How did you come up with that? Tell me more. Your mind is clever!

9. That was kind. You did something helpful and thoughtful for that person. That must make you feel good inside. Thank you!

10. I have a surprise for you. It’s not your birthday. It’s for no reason at all. Just a surprise, a little one, but a surprise.

11. I can wait. We have time. You don’t have to hurry this time.

12. What would you like to do? It’s your turn to pick. You have great ideas. It’s important to follow your special interests.

13. Tell me about it. I’d like to hear more. And then what happened? I’ll listen.

14. I’m right here. I won’t leave without saying good-bye. I am watching you. I am listening to you.

15. Please and Thank You. These are important words. If I forget to use them, will you remind me?

16. I missed you. I think about you when we are not together!

17. Just try. A little bit. One taste, one step. You might like it. Let’s see. I’ll help you if you need it. I think you can do it.

18. I’ll help you. I heard you call me, here I am. How can I help you? If we both work together, we can get this done. I know you can do it by yourself, but I’m glad to help since you asked.

19. What do you wish for? Even if it’s not yet time for birthday candles and we don’t have a wishbone, it’s still fun to hear about what you wish for, hope for, and dream about.

~Coffee Filter Wreath~

 This coffee filter wreath is adorable and easy to make.  I've seen it made a few different ways, but this way worked out the easiest for us with great results. My 3 y/o little girl and I made this together.

Found these at my favorite thrift shop: Wreath $.50 & Pins $1.00

I started to crinkle the filters and pinned them to the wreath.

Didn't take long to get one side done.

Flatening out the filters first gave them more of a fluffy look then a wrinkled look.

This is what one looks like alone before I pinned it in the wreath.

1 hour later... Finished Product. 

My simple "white" collection. :)


~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

....meanwhile down on our farm.....

4H Dairy Feeders

MOO....

Little Moo....

CrabApple Tree starting its amazing blossoms....

Chores...

Spring is in the air.....

Early Spring 2012 has sprung in NE Indiana.  Myself and my family have been enjoy the 80+ degree weather.  Hubby has been planting early corn and I've been out snapping some photos of the early blooms. 

"For behold the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone. 

The flowers have already appeared in the land;

The time has arrived for pruning the vines, 

And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. 

The fig tree has ripened its figs, 

And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. 

Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, 

And come along!"

Song of Solomon 2:11-13

~Happy Spring 2012~

~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

~Happy 3rd Birthday~

~~Spring is in the air and our baby girl turned 3!~~

Happy Girl!

Party starts with a simple pink table setting including bubbles to blow! 

Pretty in Pink!

My homemade 5 layer "lopsided" cake. It weighed 3 pounds!

Cake Pops are always a great hit at parties!

#3

Pretty Cake for the Princess that she is and always will be....

Amazing!

The cake turned out perfect. Love the color variation of pinks!

Happy 3rd Birthday Baby Girl!

~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

~Pop Bottle Art~

Stop! Don't recycle that 2 liter Pop Bottle yet! Lets create some  SPRINGTIME CHERRY TREE BIRTHDAY ART! 

Items needed: black paint & pink paint

rolled paper

paint brushes

2 liter plastic bottle

I rolled out the paper across the dining room table.

Start by using a thicker brush to paint your tree and branches.

Dip your pop bottle in pink paint..

With light pressure place the bottle onto the paper and lift up.

You'll want to "blot" the bottle on other paper first to get off excess paint. 

Don't press to hard or your bottle will slide. 

Use a small paint brush to create "center" of the flower and fix any unwanted mistakes.

I added a Happy Birthday message to our darling daughter Natalie.

This banner was SOOOO easy and fun to make.  Gorgeous for a  

                                   Springtime POP of color!

Hope to see you on my facebook page: Stay Beautiful Within

HAPPY SPRING!

 ~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

~So What Happened With Natalie?~

 Being the worse blogger in the world, I'm cringing just sitting down to type this up. Today... the day after... I'm tired, exhausted, body aches,  head hurts and no amout of caffeine is helping me cope with the chronic fatigue feeling I have. 
It looks like my Facebook posts have confused a few people and many have asked "What Happened To Natalie?" 
I'll start from the beginning (and try hard to make a long story short)
Ted and I take Matthew down to a Childrens Specialist Dentist down in Indianapolis. Two weeks ago we took Natalie down and she had a rather horrifying experience with the dentist. We (Ted, myself and the dentist) all agreed it would be in Natalies best interest to be put to sleep for him to continue his dental procedures on her.  So yesterday was her procedure day down at St. Vincents Hospital in Carmel, In. 

Matthew supporting his baby sister.

Everything went well according to the dentist and anasteologist, but when they brought Natalie back to us she was thrashing around on the gurney and her left eye was nothing but a huge black pupil. 
The dentist and anasteologist both left and we were in the hands of nurses. My STRONG motherly instincts took over and I knew something was wrong with her. The nurse agreed and called in a different anasteologist to come take a peak at Natalie. The thrashing around, crying and having a hard time waking up was pretty "normal", but the one eye being one HUGE PUPIL was NOT NORMAL.

Matthew will always protect her.

The 2nd anasteologist wanted us to get her over  to Peyton Manning Childrens Hospital Emergency Room ASAP! 
So off we went to our "home away from home". We are very familiar with PMCH since Matthew is a regular patient there. Calls were made while we transferred over and they were expecting us.

At PMCH ER

So in a "nutshell" they were checking to make sure that Natalie didn't have a stroke. Everything checked out fine, PRAISE GOD!, except that crazy eye. Well the original anasteologist showed up in our room in the ER. He had been on the phone with an opthomologist and was "covering his tracks". Come to find out, the anasteologist accidentally got some nasal dialating mediciation in Natalies left eye. (He had to dialate her nostrils to insert the tube for her anastetic so the dentist could work in her mouth). Even though he taped her eyes shut he over sprayed and it somehow seeped into her eye. With that being known, the huge question was, "When does her eye turn back to normal?" The ER doc wanted to keep her over night for observation but the eye doc seemed to think it would eventually go down on its own, which it did. They kept her an additional 3 hours in the ER for observation. Natalie needed that LONGGGGGG nap. 

After a LONG 3 hours nap in the ER she was good to head home.

By this morning Natalie was 100% back to her normal self. We had a good lunch my great friend Kim and got to do a little "treasure hunting" too. 

~Momma and her baby girl~

I'm SO TIRED today, but I know WHO carries me through...

Thank you ALL for your prayers. HIS Grace and Mercy covered us all day long. 

                      ~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

~A Conversation With God~

Me (in a tizzy): God, can I ask you something?
GOD: Sure.
Me: Promise you won’t get mad?
GOD: I promise.
Me (frustrated): Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?
GOD: What do you mean?
Me: Well I woke up late,
GOD: Yes
Me: My car took forever to start,
GOD: Okay….
Me (growling): At lunch, they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait
GOD: Hmmmm..
Me: On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call
GOD: All right
Me (loudly): And to top it all off, when I got home, I just wanted to soak my feet in my foot massager and relax, but it wouldn’t work. Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?
GOD: Well let me see….. the death angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.
Me (humbled): Oh…
GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that might have hit you if you were on the road.
Me (ashamed): …………
GOD: The first person who made your sandwich today was sick and I didn’t want you to catch what they have, I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.
Me (embarrassed): Oh…..
GOD: Your phone went dead because the person that was calling was going to give a false witness about what you said on that call, I didn’t even let you talk to them so you would be covered
Me (softly): I see God
GOD: Oh and that foot massager, it had a short that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.
Me: I’m sorry God.
GOD: Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust me………in all things, the good and the bad
Me: I WILL trust you God
GOD: And don’t doubt that my plan for your day is always better than your plan Me: I won’t God. And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.
GOD: You’re welcome child. It was just another day being your God and I love looking after my children.

Scriptural References: II Samuel 22:31, Proverbs 3:5, Hebrews 2:13 “The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.. .” (Proverbs 11:25) In all things give thanks.
I Thes 5:18


(I am not the author of this wonderful conversation)


                          ~Stay Beautiful Within, Erica~

~Tiny Changes~

~Sitting at my desk this afternoon and battling a headache, I turned my head to look out the window and had totally forgotten that I sat this silk bouquet of flowers there last night. ~It was a nice reminder that Spring is coming quick.~ My spirits have instantly been lifted and my headache is now gone. ~Its amazing what tiny changes we can do to our homes to make such a dramatic difference in our moods.~

~Treasure Hunting Thursdays~

Ok, I know, Its Friday. Guess its better late then never, right?  Every Thursday are my "Treasure Hunting" days. "Treasure Hunting" you say? Whats that??"  Ahhh.... Treasure Hunting for me is so many different things wrapped up in one. A little time away from home, a little money in my wallet, lunch with a friend, the thrill of the hunt and a treasure to bring home. It could be as little as a "Hello Kitty" shirt for my 2 y/o from Goodwill or as big as a Dresser that I found at a yard sale to be painted and loved on. Wicker furniture, frames, white pitchers, glassware, blue Ball jars, sewing desk, mirrors, shelves, bookcases, bunk bed, cowgirl boots and vases are just a few items that have stolen my heart and had to come home with me. *Treasure Hunting to me is about a vision that we have in our minds about an old item and breathing new life into it.*   Its being able to find a new purpose for something old/used and  keeping items out of landfills and recycling it. Here are a few of my favorite items I've found over the years:

Painted this little desk white and am using it for a sewing desk.

White picket fence for my kitchen window.

4 piece white wicker furniture for only $30.00

White bunkbed at a "Clean House" Yard Sale for only $100.00

The "after" photo of the bunkbed set I purchased.

Cute mirror at a yard sale for only $3.00

John Deere Cowgirl Boots for my little girl at a resale shop.

Serving/lap tray from Goodwill

My newest treasures: chalkboard, glassware, tin container,  Pyrex measuring cup all for $6.00.

What have you found on your "hunts"? If you would like to share, please join my facebook page called "Stay Beautiful Within" and post your photo to my page.  I'll add it to an online album with your name attached and your story behind the item. 

                   ~ Stay Beautiful Within, Erica ~