Who knew laundry could be so sexy?

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Philippians 2.3-4

What's this you ask? Well, my friends let me tell you. This is the sight of three, count em, THREE empty laundry baskets. I have never seen them this way as I am wholly incapable of having all the laundry clean and put away at any given time. In fact, I would argue, I am one of the worst laundresses on the planet. I had no idea of my inadequacies until I went away to college and my roommate enlightened me in the ways of wash. Who knew there was more to it than cramming things in the machine at random, selecting cold water, and dumping in some soap?

But I digress, the reason I have this beautiful picture of THREE, count em THREE, empty laundry baskets is in thanks to my husband. My darling husband, the servant of all servants, used his time off to magically make all the dirty clothes disappear. He was not asked, cajoled, or even threatened. He just saw the need and did it for the family. Talk about taking one for the team.

So thank you dear husband for leading through serving. I will follow you wherever we may go!

Lucky 13

So today is my beloved and my thirteenth wedding anniversary. The crazy thing is, we have known each other for over twenty years now. That just seems crazy. I barely feel twenty on any given day, how can I possibly have had a relationship with someone that long?

It seems most of my reflections happen in the presence of running water. I don't know if it is the meditative noise running water makes or the sheer boredom most tasks involving running water produce... whatever the case I think my deepest thoughts around water. So this morning as I was washing dishes in the sink I was thinking about thirteen years. I feel so lucky to have Tim in my life and can truly say this last year has been one of the best for us.

Which led me to ponder some of the less than stellar years, at which point I gave thanks for them because they are the stepping stones that led us to here and now. Without the tough times we have shared along the way, I doubt very seriously we would have achieved the level of intimacy we now enjoy. Those times are the affirmation to love that says, I've known you even on your worst days and I still love you to the very core.

Don't get me wrong, we are far from perfect love. What we do possess is stick-to-edness. For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, till death do us part. I truly want to see him happy and the feeling is reciprocated. We truly enjoy one another's company. I could not ask for a better friend. There is certainly no one on this earth I can think of at this stage in the game who knows me quite so well. These are the rewards of stick-to-edness. That and some others I won't mention in print;)

I cannot say what it is like to be married twenty, thirty, or even fifty years but I do know thirteen, lucky thirteen as it seems. For those of you a little closer to the start of your journey, take this advice for what it's worth - stick around a while - even when the going gets rough... ignore that other adage about the tough get going. It should say, the tough stick together!

We got muscles baby, and we aint afraid to flex em!