ManWifeDog invited me to a great new link up she has created: The Love Homework Linky Party. I am excited to join in. I have been having such a crazy week, okay month, that I know my poor little hubby is starting to feel a little neglected. I thought that this would be a great way to get a reminder to give him a little more love and would be a great way to get some new ideas.

This week’s challenge was easy:

Write a little message on a post it for your husband and leave it somewhere you know he’ll find it. What did you write? What was his reaction? Did it spark any interesting conversation?

What did I write?

It took me a little bit to figure out what I wanted to write on my note and I wasn’t super creative, but that’s okay I can’t be miss creative all the time!

TJ was going to stop on his way home to grab dinner for us, because I was hosting #commenthour yesterday evening. I really appreciate how much he does these evening that I host the chat. He gets the boys away and gives them their bath and puts them to bed on these evenings. Which a lot of wives talk about how their husbands just don’t understand this online world and he is so understanding about it. My online presence is a lot about my business and helping me grow it.

This made me want to let him know how much I appreciate his support with my business. He is my constant cheerleader as I try to grow my business!

So I quickly jot down on the note, “Thank you for supporting me in my business! <3 you so much!” and I placed the post it on our door where he would find it as he brought in the dinner.

What was his reaction? What was the conversation?

He right away asked me why I left the note. I let him know how much I appreciate him and his support. I let him know that even little things like picking up dinner mean a lot to me and really help me out. He had a goofy smile like I was silly to thank him for something he thought was so small.

He asked me if I really did feel like he was supporting me and this surprised me. I had always thought he had known how much I rely on him for support and that he was a huge support. But I must not say it enough or maybe I haven’t said it before. I suddenly was so happy I had left the post it note because it had told him something that I thought he had already known. Now he knows that he really is a support and that I even see the small things as so helpful.

So, thank you, ManWifeDog, I really appreciate your invite because even this little small thing really did help my husband and helped us communicate something that I thought had already been said!

As far as my other readers I hope you will join in! You might be surprised at what you find out in your marriage. You might have an aha moment just as I did! What is something you think you take advantage for in your relationship with your husband that he may need to hear from you?

I was a little stressed this week over the theme favorite feature – what is my favorite feature. I was actually surprised how hard it was to decide on a feature that I liked. I thought about my toes because I have cute short toes, but then I would need a pedicure to get a picture that I super liked. LOL

Then this morning it came to me my nose! I actually really like my nose. It’s small but not too small and I even have the a perfect little ridge for my nose ring to sit. Okay now I’m done talking about myself here is the picture:

Join Project 52: Self Portraits

Lynda (from Daily Window) and I are putting up a new linky every Monday and inviting you to participate in this project with us. This week the linky will be up a little late as we are looking for a good linkup tool.

Each week has a new theme (though this is just a suggestion not a requirement). This was the schedule for February:

• 1/31: Silly Faces
• 2/7: Reflections
• 2/14: Love
• 2/21: Favorite Feature (this week)

The themes for March will be:

• 2/28:  Raw (or unedited)
• 3/7: Hidden
• 3/14: Being Green
• 3/21: Past & Present

You have a full week to link up with us. There are only two rules:

1. You should share a recently taken self-portrait
2. The link should be the absolute URL of your photo or entry, not a link to your homepage. Links to Flickr pages are fine!

If you want to use the Project 52 badge feel free and grab it and use it on your post. You don’t have to do every week with us you can post just once even and you don’t have to follow the weekly theme either. We just hope that you will join us for some fun.

The plan for this weeks P52 Self Portrait didn’t go as I hoped. The plan was to take a picture of me and my hubby because I have a photo frame that I want to put a photo of us in (It says love) but I realized we have no photos of us.

We were going to take the photo on Valentine’s Day when we left for our date night, but my MIL was over 40 minutes late so all the light was gone by the time I got to take the photo. I finally got one that didn’t look silly as far as the pose goes and wasn’t horribly blurry from the lack of light. But the photo was way to “warm”, I should have used my white balance like Lynda had just written about. But I was in a hurry and the boys were running circles around us.

I tried editing it and I thought I got it, but when I got it uploaded on flickr I realized it’s a little “cold” now. But I give up! This is this weeks photo, Love …

I know it’s okay, but not very spectacular. Maybe next week I will do better!

Join Project 52: Self Portraits

Lynda (from Daily Window) and I are putting up a new linky every Monday and inviting you to participate in this project with us. This week you will find the linky at Daily Window (and her photo turned out much nicer than mine this week!). Each week has a new theme (though this is just a suggestion not a requirement). This is the schedule for February:

• 1/31: Silly Faces
• 2/7: Reflections
• 2/14: Love (this week)
• 2/21: Favorite Feature

You have a full week to link up with us. There are only two rules:

1. You should share a recently taken self-portrait
2. The link should be the absolute URL of your photo or entry, not a link to your homepage. Links to Flickr pages are fine!

If you want to use the Project 52 badge feel free and grab it and use it on your post. You don’t have to do every week with us you can post just once even and you don’t have to follow the weekly theme either. We just hope that you will join us for some fun.

The bible we bought him is The Jesus Storybook Bible. It is written so beautifully shining with the love of God.The illustrations are just as lovely and Zane likes to look at them as we read.

Tonight was our first night of reading. I read the introduction to him. One of my favorite lines was:

“It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne – everything – to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairytales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this story is – it’s true.”

I enjoyed reading it to him so much that I read him the next story also. This one was about how God created the light and dark, the world, the animals, and us. I love how they wrote “‘You’re good’ God said.” You can see how a child would relate to being told they were good.

This year I hope to read a story from this Bible every night Zane gets his story. That way we can make a journey together that I hope will teach him the love that God has for him.

This January I have made a resolution to work on growing in my faith and spending more time with the Lord. I have always attempted to read my Bible and stay in the Word, but I struggle to make time. Even though I know that God gives back the time that I spend with him. It’s hard for me to stop and make a point of reading and praying. To have a time devoted just to that and nothing else.

I have taken an hour out of my day and even blocked it out on my calendar for time to spend reading and praying. I have placed it right after I put the boys down for bed. This time is usually a quiet time and a time without the boys and a time before I start working on things that need to get done.

Yet I still struggled with getting to my Bible and to know what to read and pray about.  After talking to a friend about how she also was struggling with this I told her that we should stay accountable to each other.  We live on opposite time schedules, so we made a Facebook group page just for us. So we could discuss our devotional time and check in with each other at least once a week.

We have chosen a devtional to read together: The Sacred Romance. This book starts out so fittingly:

“…a voice speaks to us in the midst of all we are doing. There is something missing in all of this, it suggests. There is something more.“

I had a new baby boy and who can describe the joys of a new child in your life. It is amazing, he is amazing.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

We had a family crisis this year and that’s all I will say on it. But the second most challenging thing was my mother’s illness.

I have never been separated from my family before. We have always lived close by. And then as my mother got to her new home across the country she became gravely ill. It was such a struggle for me, I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just fly across the country with my two little ones during the flu season. So I made the choice to stay home and correspond with my aunt. This was such a hard choice.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

Finding a new church home has been a great blessing this year. We have become members of the church. I have started making close friendships at the church. And I have even gotten to enjoy helping out in the children’s area.

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?

Being demoted at work to part-time has been a true obstacle but it turned into a blessing. The lack of money has been hard but having the extra time with my boys has been wonderful. And on top of that because I’m part-time my schedule has become more steady which is so much easier on both me and the boys.

5. Pick three words to describe 2009.

Faith, Love, Joy

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your 2009 (don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you).

Boys, struggle, Faith

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2009 (again, without asking).

Struggle, Faith, Boys

8. What were the best books you read this year?

The Bone Series, Wheel of Time: Knife of Dreams, The Ordinary Princess, The Jesus Storybook Bible

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

TJ, Wendi (my SIL), Andrea (my BF)

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

I’m not pregnant anymore, that’s pretty big. But on a serious note I’ve been working on my relationship with the Lord and have been growing closer to Him.

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?

I have made a point to take better care of myself. To not rely so much on others for my happiness.

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?

We have become members of a church, I have been going to Bible study regularly, and have been volunteering at church. I have also been trying to take time each day to read my Bible and pray, to have a quiet time with the Lord.

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?

Just last month I have started a new diet and have scheduled exercise into my week.

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?

I have made some great new friendships at church. Which was one of my goals this year. I have been wanting to gain some new christian friends.

15. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home?

Lesson time with Zane this year was one of my absolute favorite things this year. Though I don’t if you would count that as home management.

16. What was your most challenging area of home management?

All of home management but most of all housekeeping and laundry.

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

Probably surfing online and Facebook.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

Spending time with my boys and TJ. We made a point this year to spend more time together and to have more family time. This was one of the greatest things about this year.

19. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?

To put God first in your life and all things after.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2009 for you.

God is faithful.

Survey found a (In)Courage.

I grew up in the church but then stepped away for a while. When things in my life seemed to overwhelm me and when I had experiences that soured my vision of the church. My love for the Lord has never faded but my faith faded as I was away from the church.

My desire has grown so strong to bring to right my life with the Lord. I have been making great strides in working on spending time with Him. Now I want even more to become closer to Him.

This January I am going to share with some of the things I have been adding to my life to grow in my walk with the Lord. Some of the things I am adding to my life and some of the things I am changing.

I will also be following the series Fresh Year, Fresh Start. I encourage you to follow along also!

Have you made any resolutions this year? Anything to better your life? Have you made resolutions before?

It’s always fun to come home and hear the stories of the boys’ day. To hear about their adventures or misadventures. But today was just that more special to me.

Zarek has started to climb up the stairs and yesterday we got overly involved with what we were doing. We didn’t realize the gate was open and Zarek had started going up the stairs until we heard him fall down. He luckily didn’t fall that far or get hurt, just a little upset.

But I guess Zane had learned something through this experience. Granny came running when she heard Zane calling for her very urgently. And there he was holding onto Zarek quarter way up the stairs. He was trying to make sure he didn’t fall down again.

Doesn’t that just melt your heart? It melted mine to think of my 2 1/2 year old holding on to his baby brother and calling for help. He was thinking of what could happen to his brother and wanted to save him. Zane does love his baby Zarek. Now we just have to teach Zane to keep the gate closed downstairs.