Day 2983 – The Power Of Consistency

Posted on September 10, 2017 by 365 days of marriage

I love checklists, especially since I started highlighting my progress instead of marking. There are lots of methods to encourage growth. Some things motivate better than others. For three areas of my life, checklists have had a great impact. The first is flossing. I have flossed every day, except two days, for almost a year. Since Bret’s last dentist appointment, he hasn’t missed a day either.

The other checklist I have is for working out and for writing. I haven’t been as consistent as I would like, but the last seven days have been successful, I only missed the weekend last week, and did a full week the week before. While I’m doing short workouts and only about 5-15 minutes for my writing sessions, I’m making forward progress.

What helps you to be consistent?

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Day 2978 – How We Wake Up At 5 AM And Actually Enjoy It – and – A Little Bit About Working With Your Spouse

Posted on September 5, 2017 by 365 days of marriage

I think we have a new habit, and I think it will be around for a while: waking up at 5:00 a.m. on work days. Since we are building a business (real estate investing), there is a lot to do, all the time. I’ve really been digging in with data mining and management. We’ve recently started outsourcing calls, and it helps to put the pressure on me to keep up with finding numbers and not find excuses to be lazy. Since I don’t track my time on the weekends, I have no idea how many hours I put it this weekend, but it has been a lot. Oy. I have looked at SO many houses online! Though, it does get me dreaming about a home for us down the line. We have some pretty specific needs and wants, so it will likely take a while until we find it. Since Bret is back to school (today is the first day for the kids), having a routine is much more important. One way we’re fitting more in each day is by waking up at 5:00 a.m. I cannot believe I’m saying it….but we haven’t snoozed once since we started. I have ALWAYS snoozed. I have snoozed for HOURS. We’ll still be in bed, but we aren’t hitting snooze and trying to sleep for those precious 9 minutes. Once we have somewhat of a mental faculty going, we’ll start to say things that we’re thankful for. It can be anything from “I’m thankful you’re alive today” to “I’m thankful for this blanket” to “I’m thankful we prepped the coffee last night.” It makes such a difference in mood of the day right from the start. We’ll spend a little time chatting about the day and different things once the coffee is ready. Then I launch into my morning firsts (devotions, writing, blogging, etc).

It’s funny that we’re working together again. After we stopped photography, I thought it would be me working my jobs, and Bret teaching. Us working together, in a lot of ways, came out of left field. But I am SO pumped to be working with Bret again! Working with your spouse isn’t easy, it can be difficult, for sure, but the benefits outweigh those difficulties for us. One thing we’ve noticed is that I can get grumpy if I don’t get 8-9 hours of sleep. It takes a few days, but there is a noticeable difference. Last week, I was REALLLLLLLY grumpy, and Bret was like, ummmmmmmm, what? After more time than it should have, we realize it was because of my lack of sleep. Because Bret knows me so well, he can call me out on things, and we can work through them together.

A bonus to waking up this early is getting to see the sunrise. I was not disappointed this morning.

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Day 2977 – Movie (And TV) Marathon!

Posted on September 4, 2017 by 365 days of marriage

We had toyed with the idea of going to the Bengies Drive-In Theater Dusk to Dawn movie marathon (which is SO much fun, if you can make it out) this weekend. The line up was fantastic, including Twister. I mean, seriously, how cool/scary would it have been to watch a movie at a drive-in that is hit with a twister AT a drive-in? But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it would be a long time commitment. We would have watched 4 of the 5 movies, and the drive-in is about 20-30 minutes from us. That’s a late night. So, we decided to have a movie marathon at home. I got a few snacks during my grocery run to Aldi. Ah, I so love Aldi. It has saved us so much money, allowed us to eat healthier, and after their remodel, has been an even more enjoyable shopping experience.

We piled the snacks and started off with the new Netflix documentary, Resurface. It is a short documentary about veterans who suffered from PTSD and/or physical injuries who start surfing. It was absolutely amazing and a great reminder that there are veterans that are hurting. Besides a little language, it’s pretty clean. I found myself wanting to surf, and crying the whole time over the stories. Worth a watch, for sure.

Next we watched This Is War, just a fun “two CIA agents dating the same girl” movie. Pretty funny stuff.

We finished the night by finishing the last season of Duck Dynasty. It was sad to finish, because we really enjoy the show. As much as people make fun of the family, they are kind, have deep faith (seriously, reading any of their books you’ll see this), and have a deep love for their family. I love having a show that makes me laugh one minute and cry the next.

What have you done this holiday weekend? Let us know in the comments below.

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Day 2976 – We Discovered The Secret To A Great Marriage Yesterday

Posted on September 3, 2017 by 365 days of marriage

First, let me give a shout out to Bret here. On Friday, he texted and asked what was on the agenda for the weekend. Turns out, he was looking into taking me to a book festival! He wasn’t sure if he should surprise me or tell me so I could look into it. He did tell me, and I’m glad he did. There were some great authors, but as it turns out, most of them had books I wanted to read, but hadn’t read yet. So with that fact and that it was in DC, and since it was supposed to rain all day, we opted to not go.

I then mentioned that there was a book store with a bar/coffee and we decided to check it out. We ended up not getting anything there, but wanted to walk around the little town. We passed a place that said it had waffles AND tacos! WHAT?!?! We were about to cross the street, but I said, hey, let’s take a little walk around the block. The little neighborhood we found ourselves was Hampden, MD. It’s a cute and quirky little town, and I wanted to explore a little. We had barely taken a few steps, when we were greeted with a sign that said check out over 200 Belgium beers. We did a QUICK turn, and made our way. Bret is a HUGE fan of Belgium beers, and friends, he was not disappointed. We found ourselves in an awesome bar, De Kleine Duivel. It had a very Twin Peaks/David Lynch vibe…funny enough, they have movie/TV show nights, and are having a Twin Peaks series finale party on Tuesday. Bret was met with a new favorite beer….which, the guy told him while pouring….was being discontinued. Poor Bret has an awful track record of finding beers he loves and then they are discontinued. Ah well, he has 199 more to try! 😀 We found out that the bar is bring your own food, because there are only drinks served here. I got myself a ginger beer and it was quite delicious. I love finding a place that has more non-alcoholic options than water and soda.

At this point, we decided to try out the other restaurant with the idea of coming back to the bar another day. We made our way to Golden West Cafe. We didn’t end up getting waffles, but I did get tacos. Before I attacked the taco….we were met with this.

Chile Cheese Fries – but we got the Tater Tots instead. It is covered with cheddar jack cheese, chile sauce, and salsa fresca. Friends. We destroyed this thing. So. Freakin. Fast. It was absolutely amazing. Honestly, it filled both of us up it was hard to eat our entrees. Bret got a hangover burger (with avocado and a fried egg), and he didn’t finish it! That’s unheard of. I could only eat one of my tacos. We were SO full.

When we arrived home, we were both just so happy and full and content. Bret said, man, I know the secret to a happy marriage – eating great food! And friends, it is so so true. So, just find yourselves a great restaurant, and find some happy marriage time. 🙂

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