Falling in love again

I’ve fallen in love all over again this past week. I’m not sure exactly how or when it happened I just know that I’ve caught myself staring and smiling at my husband more than I have in a long time. Perhaps it is just from spending quality time with the one you love and this has made a difference in my attitude.

We have been dealing with Eric’s illness on a daily basis for months now, so it’s only natural for it to create some tension within our relationship. Yet, through it all it’s important we remember what our priorities are and to not lose sight of them and deal with the stress productively.

We have felt blessed as Eric has felt a little stronger, and had a little more energy than usual for an entire week. We have taken advantage of this time and were able to do several enjoyable things together that we’ve missed doing. It’s the simple physical things that we take for granted and we realize this when they are removed from our daily lives.

Some of the things we did this week, in no particular order were.

Another cookout – or as some northerners call it a BBQ with lots of good food.

On the 4th of July, the weather was absolutely perfect so we bravely decided to spend the night out under the stars since we hadn’t done this in ages. Instead of camping out in the woods in sleeping bags on the hard ground, we brought outside a mattress, bed sheets, and blankets and slept on the deck next to the burning firepit. This was my idea of roughing it.



Eric kept the fire stoked as the temperature dropped down to 58° by early morning. It was a miracle in itself there were not any annoying bugs out that night. As we lay warmly snuggled up in our covers, staring at the northern sky in search of the big dipper, we noticed the constellations of stars in view were dimly hiding behind the clouds. The noises we heard were very faint in the distance. There was a low flying jet overhead, some late night firework displays, and a barely noticeable motorcycle sound. A few crickets chirped softly nearby, singing us to sleep. It was a fun night, and we’re looking forward to doing it again, but only when it gets warmer as Eric claims.



We’ve spent several late night hours watching the first season of the China Beach series cuddled up on the couch. I never watched the show when it was originally aired, but I’ve come to enjoy this series now and I can’t wait to see how it ends.

On another night, we had the pleasure of entertaining six young men from the Christian Academy of Arts as our overnight guest. This was the second year they have stayed with us. What a blessing these talented guys were, and the play they preformed was awe inspiring.


Today was an adventuresome day as we went to the park with our 4 ½ year-old grandson Zachary, and we took our three bikes to ride on a bike trail. I’m looking forward to riding the entire distance of six miles one day soon. We couldn’t complete it today as unfortunately one of our bikes got a flat tire.


We also visited a historical site in our community of an enormous 400 + year-old Weeping Beech tree that was incredible. We never knew existed until now.

There was something very special about this week, yet I can’t seem to put my finger on it. I just know that God had his hand in it and tonight as I lay my head on my pillow I will be counting my many blessings and thanking him for my handsome, wonderful husband and the love we share in addition to the time we have to cherish together each day.