Settling In.

All Tuesday mornings should start with pancakes and continue on to afternoon library dates. 

I will say it five million times over and over again;
I love being married.
I love being a wife.
And most importantly;
I love being married to him.

We have been endlessly blessed through circumstances and God things lately {updates later when the dust has settled and things have finalized a little bit more. I don’t want to simply wishfully speak without anything set in stone}. I’m not entirely sure what my expectations for marriage were before our wedding day. We seemed to talk a lot about it in counseling and some lady at a coffee shop even (snidely) after seeing my ring and sizing me up because of my age, asked me what I thought marriage was. I told her I thought it was unpredictable. After almost (and only) two months I know I was right. Not always in the bad meaning, most often in the good. But for so many of the in-betweens, too. I guess what I mean is, I never thought marriage would make me prideful about money and selfish about alone time. I never thought marriage would make me greedy for us time or so anxious, for a husband I now spend every day with, to come home from work after eight or twelve hours. I never thought about how I would feel at night when I’m half awake and I feel him curl himself sleepily around my body or what fighting within the same time zone, not to mention, house would feel like. I never thought about how marriage would bring out both the best and the ugly qualities of my character or want to learn even more about his. 

I love where we are in all forms; emotionally, physically, mentally, in life and in love. I am reminded time and time again that we are a team; even if it’s him reminding me of it during a squabble. It's funny, and I almost hate to say it, but I think the transition before this actual transition was more difficult. I hesitate in writing that I almost thought settling in and this transition to marriage and moving and yada yada would be more difficult than this. We seemed to have found a church, we have friends and love our home and our fur loves. Granted, I know hard times are inevitable, and I'm certainly not naive enough to think that marriage and being away from family and all the "cons" to this aspect of life won't surface themselves. But truthfully...I've never felt so at ease and so settled in all the best ways. 

I recently celebrated (with Starbucks of course), 

finding out that I have a part-time job teaching nursery school starting in September! 

It was a total God-thing and not something I was really trying for or expecting right now. It's the perfect set up, the perfect amount of time, pay, position and responsibility and (hopefully) another way to meet awesome people! I'm really looking forward to doing what my heart loves and working with kids again. I miss my old job and the kiddos and families and people I worked with. I was there for almost four years and it was tough leaving it once graduation came. While I'm not entirely sure what my next five or ten years will look like, this position right now seems to be the perfect fit for what I was (or really wasn't!) looking for.

I’ve been throwing myself into this season of rest phase of my life and it is so satisfying. I love cooking and not just cooking, but cooking for someone else. I think it’s a form of love language I never knew I had or wanted to have. I’m not perfect or anywhere near America’s Next Iron Chef, but it’s so much fun to try new things and to see Kev’s face when we found something we like. I recently discovered he loves hummus as much as I do and after going through two store bought containers in under two weeks for about four dollars a pop, I whipped this recipe up tonight. I can’t wait for him to try it when he gets home from work later!

I also have my mother’s desire to decorate. People are constantly amazed by the way she refurbishes our house or takes coffee tables off the side of the road from trash and distresses them into the most beautifully refinished piece you’d see at an antique store for thousands of dollars. While I’m no where near her level, I take pride in creatively decorating our small space of a home for now. I love taking old or simple things and turning them into something useful. Today I turned old candle jars that have seen their time and stained them orange to match our living room. I put a new smaller candle in them and watched it glow warmly for hours while I played with our fur babies and prepped meals for the week.

This life and this chapter are so simple, but so satisfying.

I have never ever ever been more c o n t e n t.