About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 2125 – My Husband Loves Someone Else More Than Me

Posted on May 6, 2015 by 365 days of marriage

The other night, Bret and I were chatting on the porch and he made a confession. He doesn’t love me most of all. To my surprise, I said the same to him.

Seven years ago, this would not have been the case. This admission of love for someone else more than him would have just been a “thing to say.”

My definition of love has changed over the years. At first, it was just someone giving me attention. Sadly, that is a poor man’s love and brought on much heartbreak. As I grew in my understanding of Christ’s love for me, this view changed to someone who believes in God. This was a little bit better than my first definition, but it was still lacking. Then I met Bret and it felt like everything changed. I look back on where I was mentally when I met Bret and I almost immediately wrote off all guys who were vying for my attention. There was no one else. As time went on, my definition of love became talking to Bret. Given that we had a long distance relationship for so long, those conversations were very precious. Then, he proposed and my “love definition” changed again to “someone who is a good wife.” For the first 5 years of our marriage, I think that was my definition of love – being a good wife. But last year, everything started to shift in my view of love. I think the first push in different direction started with a sermon by John Piper. He basically says that we count all things as loss already. Included in that list of “all things” is spouse. From that moment, I started to count every day as a gift with Bret. I slowly, truly started to loosen my grip on defining love as how well I was doing as a wife and his “good job wife” response as a measure of love. I started to count – how well am I doing finding my measure of love from God?

So when my dear, wonderful husband, with eyes raised in an “I’m sorry” tilt, said “I’m starting to love God more than you,” I was able to say, “you know what, me too.” What followed was a sweet time of worshiping God for all he’s done in us over the past year. Taking two very sinful, selfish, prideful, awful people and molding them more and more into the character of Christ. Whew, what an awesome journey! I truly hope that as the years go by in your marriage, your spouse is falling more in love with God.

Oh and taking crazy selfies like this with you. 🙂

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Day 2124 – Today, I Worked Out With Bret

Posted on May 5, 2015 by 365 days of marriage

Well, today I worked out with Bret…in the woods….with rocks and vines. It was so fun to workout with him and learn new ways to workout! 🙂

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Day 2123 – A Healthy Meal For $0.67 A Serving

Posted on May 4, 2015 by 365 days of marriage

One thing that is important to us is eating healthy. Since moving, our expenses have increased across the board, so finding ways to save has been on the forefront of my mind. Last week, I made a fantastic meal for $0.67 a serving! It’s an incredibly flexible recipe too.

My ingredients – purchased at Wal-Mart:
Iberia Brown Rice (raw, 4 cups in the bag – used 1/4) – $3.48 (full bag), $0.98 used.
Great Value Pinto Beans (raw, 3 cups in the bag – used 1/3) – $3.92 (full bag), $1.16 used.
Campbell’s Organic Vegetable Broth (4 cup container, used all) – $2.88
Great Value Alaska Pink Salmon (1 can, 14.75 oz) – $2.42
Hanover Soup Vegetables (2 – 3 lb bags – sweet peas, sweet corn, potatoes, carrots, okra, rutabaga, green beans, lima beans, onions and cabbage) – $2.97 each bag – $5.94 total

Total cost of materials used – $13.38 – made 20 servings – $0.67 each serving. If you include Maryland sales tax (6%), you’re looking at $0.71 a serving.

Approximate nutritional facts:
Calories – 248
Fat – 1.65 g
Saturated fat – 0.175 g
Polyunsaturated fat – 0.35 g
Monounsaturated fat – 0.35 g
Cholesterol – 12.25 mg
Sodium – 192.25 mg
Potassium – 101.5 mg
Carbohydrates – 46.8 g
Fiber – 6.8 g
Sugars – 3.4 g
Protein – 13.8

How I did it:
Make the beans – The beans took the most amount of time with this recipe. I did the quick soak option on the bag, which probably took about 4-6 hours. So I started in the morning and just kept checking on it while I worked throughout the day.

Make the rice – I cooked the rice in a rice steamer.

Prep everything else – When the beans were almost done, I microwaved the vegetables and heated up the broth. Now, I was planning on using 3 cans of the salmon….but this particular brand/batch had scales, bones, the works. I tried to pick off the meat, but gave up after about 15 minutes. Bret tells me you can eat the bones but I’ll trust him and leave that to him. 🙂

Mix it all up! – Then I tossed the roughly one can’s worth of meat into the broth. I added some spices (Old Bay, garlic, salt and pepper) to the broth/meat mix. Once everything was heated up, I mixed everything in a huge bowl. I then spooned out 20 servings into microwavable dishes. Thankfully, I had the foresight to put most of them in the freezer. It has reheated really well. I’ve added butter and spices and a Wegmans sausage which significantly ups the cost per serving, but I wanted some more protein. The soup itself is very filling.

What I would do differently next time:
I would get a different meat.
I would add more vegetables to add more filling and less rice to decrease the carbs.
I would get a different variety of beans and rice. Knowing how far the dry goods go makes me want to get organic.

Did you try it? What did you think?