Choosing to work on my love walk...

I am a strong believer in backing up what you say with your actions.  Your words need to mean something when you say them.  There shouldn't be any doubt of meaning what you say.  My Grandfather has only said the words "I love you" to me about 3 times...when my Mom died, when his Mom died, and when my Grandmother (his wife) died.  However, I never doubt for one minute that he loves me even though he's not one to say it.  His actions have always made it known to me....He's the perfect example to me of this Bible verse and even when I've heard "Your actions speak louder than your words."  It's also something I've found saying to my children a lot lately.  I'm going to chose to work on my own love walk.  I'm a person that enjoys doing things for others anyway, but I want to make sure that I am intentionally doing it on a daily basis with every member of my immediate family.  I've kinda fallen off the bandwagon since preparing for my surgery and I need to get back on.  I never want there to be any doubt that when I say "I love you" to my husband or my children...I want my actions to also back those words up.  How am I going to do that?

1.  I want to commit to praying for my husband and my children daily.  I want to take them and place them in God's hands each and every day.

2.  I want to greet them with a warm smile and a hug each morning when they come downstairs and I want to give them each a hug and kiss as they are tucked into bed.

3.  I want to ask them if they need something done for them that day or if there is anything that I could do for them...or even giving them a little note to find somewhere about something that I saw that they did to let them know that Mommy does see and they make me proud when they do certain things.

4.  I want to work on drawing them in and being close and loving with them when we are in the midst of temper tantrums or fit throwing to change our attitudes and make them feel like I am listening and that I do care about them and that I am just being present with them.

I will report back...will you help keep me accountable?

Marriage

Just wanted to share a little bit more about me.  I've been married for 17 years now as of September 12.  I met my husband, Andrew, when our family moved about 6 weeks before the end of my junior year in high school.  We were in English Lit together and we were both french horn players.  We became friends and we were both dating other people in high school.  We went to college in 2 different states, but kept in touch via email occasionally.  A little more than 2 years later, he said he was home visiting and wanting me to come and visit him and so I did.  We hung out and talked for a couple of days and on the last day he kissed me and our story together started.  We were married about 2 years later in a very small ceremony in Chicago with Chicago-style pizza as our reception food since everybody was coming in from out of state.  We are simple people, what can I say?  We paid for our own wedding and reception and had a budget to work with that we stuck too and for that I am proud of us!

We've had our ups and downs, but we have always stuck by one another and talked things out.  We've been through infertility problems, job loss, financial mess, moving across the country (remind me to tell you of that story sometime...we moved from Michigan to Texas almost 9 years ago), doing foster care and adopting 3, and 2 births of our own.  I'll tell you each of my children's stories in another post.  I just thought I'd share a little about my marriage first.

My husband, Andy, plays harpsichord (we have one in our bedroom), and loves taking pics of the sky...he works in the computer tech field for an architectural firm, and he is my coupon king and is also a storm spotter and sometimes chaser.  He is my rock through this journey of life and I couldn't have asked God for a better husband!  He is a wonderful husband and father and I couldn't be more proud of him!