This post is a day late, but we were busy celebrating yesterday.   Plus, would it really be a bloggable event if you pre-emptively posted about it? Hmmm…

My husband and I celebrated five years of marriage yesterday! (WOW! Where does the time go?!) I must say that Hubby did an incredible job planning the day.   I got gorgeous red roses, a lovely dinner out (my parents offered to watch Munchkin and Bean… how cool is that?!), and a necklace. Nice. Pics coming… one day…

In honor of the special day, I dug up my “Husband Wishlist” that I wrote during the summer of 2002… little did I know that I’d be meeting the personification of that list just a few weeks later on August 30, 2002. (Many thanks to Hindsfeet for keeping a copy of this all these years! Let’s just say that computer hard drives and I did not have a good working relationship the year I got engaged and married… and yes, I said hard drives, plural.)

July 2002

My sole purpose, goal and aim in life is to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, soul, mind and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). It’s my desire to go wherever and do whatever the Lord would require of me (Mark 8:34-38, Hebrews 12:1-2) even if it means dying for the cause of Christ (Hebews 11:33-40).

I am willing to do all of these things alone should this be the Lord’s will for my life, however, I pray that God will grant me a husband to walk with and serve alongside. I believe the woman is called be her husband’s helpmeet and that she must submit to him in all things unless if his desires are in direct violation of scriptural principals. For this reason, the woman is wise to make a careful scrutiny of her potential future husband to be sure they are like-minded in all things which she and the Lord consider to be essential and non-negotiable… basically, be as picky as possible before it is too late. J

The purpose of this list is to lay out, in clear and concise fashion, my personal “wish list.” I have done this without giving any romantic though to any young man whatsoever. This is strictly a compilation of biblical mandates and personal preferences that I feel to be essential in a good husband.

1) Because the Bible calls us not to be unequally yoked with a non-believer, he must know Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. This will be evidenced by his ability to share his personal testimony and by spiritual fruit in his life.

2) He must have a passion for serving God at all costs (Mk 8:34-38).

3) He must have a deep passion for reaching the lost and share my passion for missions

4) In that desire to serve, this young man cannot have left his first love.

5) Even as a mature believer, he must still be seeking to excel still more in all things.

6) Because this man will be my spiritual head for as long as we live, I feel that it is essential for us to be complete agreement on essential doctrines, and for him to be more spiritually mature than I am.

7) He must be a servant leader (never asking others to do what he would not do himself)

8 ) He should have self-control (Titus 2:6, 1 Tim 3:2)

9) He must be known by all that know him to be a man of good character and good integrity. (Titus 2:8, Titus 3:2, 1 Tim. 3:2, 1 Tim.3:7)

10) He must be reverent.

11) He should have a reputation for sound speech.

12) He must be humble before God, under authority and while in authority over others. (1 Tim 3:6)

13) He must love me as Christ loves His church.

14) He must be attracted to my character more than my face or form.

15) As a minister of the gospel, I feel it is imperative for him to be “overseer-qualified” as outlined in 1 Tim 3:2-8)
- not an adulterer (vs. 2) even in singleness.
- sober-minded (vs. 2)
- hospitable (vs. 2)
- apt and able to teach (vs. 2)
- not given to wine (vs. 3) or drugs
- not violent (vs. 3)
- not greedy (vs. 3)
- gentle (vs. 3)
- not quarrelsome (vs. 3)
- not covetous (vs. 3)
- desire to rule his house well and under God’s authority (vs. 4-5)
- a mature believer (vs. 3:6)
- not double-tongued (1 Tim 3:8)

16) He must be settled in his career and financially able to care for a household (Proverbs 24:27)

17) He must be spiritually, emotionally and financially ready for fatherhood.
- love children
- not scared of children
- willing to trust God on the timing and number
- desire to home-school at least until the children would be able to thrive in a traditional schooling environment

18) He should be patient and not easily angered.

19) He should be joyful.

20) He must be trusting God in all things

21) I would like him to have a good, clean sense of humor.

22) I hope he likes veggies and trying new foods!

23) I’d like him to at least appreciate music (especially hymns and praise choruses)

24) I sure hope he likes being physically active!

God works all things for His glory and our good… I realize that God may have other plans for my life, including whether or not I marry at all. For this reason, I humbly give this human list over to His divine editing. However, I promise no to make any concessions to the scriptural based mandates without careful Bible study and godly counsel.

To God be the Glory!
Adrienne

One day I should I go through and annotate the list with how God answered my prayers…

But in the meantime…

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABE! I pray we enjoy many more!

Love,
YLP

For the first time in over a week, I got a good night’s sleep.

The sun is not up yet, but I’m sure it’s going to be a beautiful day and the birds will be singing.

Just thought you’d like to know.

If you’re like me, it’s easy to think stewardship refers to finances, and maybe time, but what about space? Have you ever thought about how much rent/mortage gets paid every month on storing those precious treasures?

We live in a pretty small space, about 850ish square feet with no garage, attic, basement, or other storage outside the four walls of our apartment. Although not as small as what some people make work (especially considering we’re a family of three going on four) it’s still pretty cramped in here at times. I chose to get rid of a lot of stuff to make more space for our family. It’s been hard (my fabric stash and more than half our books were the hardest to lose) but both my hubby and I are pretty pleased with the results.

As I was packing up the latest Goodwill pile (one of the hardest because there were a lot of things I really loved that had to go) it hit me: I’m finally making the necessary choices to live comfortably and contently within our space means that God’s blessed us with! So yes, I can’t have a nice pantry or stockpile of items bought at the lowest possible price, I can’t really sew or do other crafts, I have to be selective about what gets saved, but who cares? This is where God’s put us and I can either choose to use our space wisely or I can fill every inch of space with “stuff” and then complain it’s not bigger.

WOW.

I can see that God has been working on my heart in this area for quite awhile and we’re really starting to reap the benefits of the freedom that comes with a streamlined and organized home, but today it really all came together

After seeing the pics my dad took, Dana wanted to know what my dad looks like…

And for good measure, here is a picture of my mom…

I think I have very nice looking parents, don’t you?

So here is the photo from last Saturday…

and here is a picture from when she was 4 months…

Let me go on record as saying I have the coolest Dad ever. All it took was an hour at the local university, 130 shots, about thirty minutes of editing, and we got these!

First we’ll start with pictures of the Bamberina. We are sooooo excited that we were able to get some solo shots of her. I guess we can say these are her official one year old portraits.

This one is my personal favorite of this pose, but the humdinger of them all is this one…

Now, moving on to Daddy and his little Girl…

And now for the family shots…

I made $7.42 plus a carnival coin yesterday. Sure it took me most of the day to do the job that I was doing (decluttering our room) but I also don’t have to pay taxes on it since it was already our money.

Here’s how I plan to spend my “loot”: 3 loads of jeans and towels down in the basement and 3-1/2 hours of parking at the meters. Aren’t I the crazy spender! LOL.

We do have our own washer (HOORAY!) but it’s the tiniest stackable that Sears sells due to the crazy tiny closet we have to put it in. Because it’s so small, it has a really hard time dealing with jeans and towels. Since the warranty repair service at Sears is mediocre at best, we find it easier to shell out $1.25 in quarters in the washer downstairs to not have to worry about our washer breaking under the weight.

As to parking, we live in a city with not enough parking spaces and lots and lots of meters. Unless I walk to wherever I need to conduct business (and I usually do if it’s under a mile and I don’t have to carry anything huge back) I have to feed the hungry meters. We have been steadily burning through our crazy amounts of change in the house for the 16 months we’ve lived here and I thought I had used it all up and was contemplating having to the go to the bank before I could do any more business here in town.. but now I have more coins! WHEEEE!

We were out from noon until 5:30ish on Saturday. When we got home, we saw the refrigerator and freezer doors open and a not very pleasant smell coming out. Darn it! I had made a small snack before we left and shut the door, but sometimes it bounces back open. This seems to be what happened on Saturday. GRRRRR!

As I was cleaning out the fridge, I began to realize that I had much to be thankful for:

1. I have not done a serious shopping trip in almost three weeks so we didn’t lose much.

2. The milks I had to throw out were expiring today (Monday) and they only had a cup left in them.

3. This happened on Saturday… a non-therapy day.

The amazing thing is the freezer was FINE!!!!!!! Everything in the fridge was warm to the touch, but the freezer was still frozen solid. The ice cubes were still in the correct form and the ice cream looked fine. I served Dan and I each some ice cream and we celebrated God’s graciousness to us.

Note to self: double check the doors before heading out the door.