Love Dare Day 17

Today's Dare:

Determine to guard your mate’s secrets (unless they are dangerous to them or to you) and to pray for them. Talk with your spouse, and resolve to demonstrate love in spite of these issues. Really listen to them when they share personal thoughts and struggles with you. Make them feel safe.

Really? In SPITE of the secrets your spouse may have? DEMONSTRATE LOVE IN SPITE OF... I am having a difficult time believing that resolving to love someone despite their secrets is a good way to hold onto a relationship. I think you love someone because of their secrets, and their imperfections, because they are a part of the person you love unconditionally. You don't go into a relationship planning to love someone only until you see their darker side. Also, when would you make your chosen life partner not feel safe in sharing ANYTHING at all with you?

Is it just The Dude and me? We don't have secrets from one another. We share everything. The good, bad and ugly of our thoughts and desires. Sometimes we just want the other to listen, and sometimes we need to talk something out, or look for alternatives. We always feel free to share anything, and at least from my standpoint, do not ever use that information later for anything at all. I also know that The Dude does not keep secrets well, and I did have issues with our lives, struggles, etc. being fodder for public discussions with our friends. I don't have those issues anymore, because I found that the more you share your life with a person or people, the more you realize that we all help each other. We all share in the struggles and the joy, and that's what truly makes a community of people.

I'm still going to go through all 40 days, but it is seeming more and more that this is geared toward people struggling in their relationships.

Love Dare Day 16

Today's Dare:

Begin praying today for your spouse’s heart. Pray for three specific areas where you desire for God to work in your spouse’s life and in your marriage.

OK, here's where I may part ways with the Love Dare... I'll give it a shot, but instead of calling it prayer, which brings weird connotations for me, I'm going to set intentions in my affirmation journal (I know, I'm hippy dippy). My intentions are:

The Dude understands the impact of his words and actions.

The Dude is Loving, and Respectful.

The Dude makes healthy choices for his mind, body and spirit.

These are the same affirmations I make for all of my family. For a while I was writing these in a separate journal. I started a new one, but for some reason do not write in it daily. I think I should start doing that again.

Tableau Tuesday #1

So, I've figured out the alliteration for my new day of Photo Posts! I'm moving Photo Fridays to Tableau Tuesdays.

TableauTa`bleau"\, n.; pl. Tableaux. [F., dim. fr. L. tabula a painting. See Table.]
1. A striking and vivid representation; a picture.

This is work that would have appeared in Photo Fridays of 3/6 or 3/13, plus the work of this weekend.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Monday Morning Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend was VERY busy! Friday afternoon found us at the house, finishing the science fair project with the boys and a friend. They did the evolution of stuffed animals, and it turned out pretty cute! The Geez stopped by for a bit during this time, and The Dude wasn't here, so he left. Spent 3 hours fixing some malware on my folk's computer while The Dude and The Boys went to dinner at one of The Dude's Bro's homes with another brother, and The Geez.

Saturday Morning was the St. Patrick's Parade which The Boys were in, followed by the festival. It was so cold that I felt worse after being there than I had after going to the snow! We walked around, ate junk food, saw a bunch of people we know, and took in a blacksmith show, where The Oldest won a salt spoon made from an iron nail. It was a pretty cool show, and I'd recommend it if you see them about at a festival. The story we heard was the "No Weak Links", and it was very entertaining!

Sunday was The Youngest's Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese's. All the kids had fun, and even my nephews, who are 11 and 9 looked like they were having a good time amidst all the little kids! The Youngest got a bunch of cool toys and they've opened most, but I'm holding back a few for a week or so from now, or they'll never even remember about them! Got home, and the neighbors and a friend came over to play for the afternoon. I got to visit with my friend while they all entertained themselves, and we did some planning and brainstorming on how to help the boys' school in this budget nightmare.

Today, I'm pooped!

Love Dare Day 15

Today's Dare:

Choose a way to show honor and respect to your spouse that is above your normal routine. It may be holding the door for her. It might be putting his clothes away for him. It may be the way you listen and speak in your communication. Show your mate that he or she is highly esteemed in your eyes.

OK, I can do this one, but above and beyond may involve bowing down, and kissing his ring at this point!

Seriously though, I feel like I show him respect, and ask that The Boys also show him respect. I did my level best to pay attention to the time we spend together, and to not be dismissive of The Dude, or his ideas and opinions. Today he was in a bitchyish mood, so that put a damper on the rest of us. I hope he gets a good night's sleep tonight - it will all look better tomorrow!

We had the Science fun fair for all Elementary schools in 2 districts. It took up three buildings at the county fairgrounds, and it was fun to see all the different projects. My only regret is that we weren't able to spend more time wandering around. But we went immediately following Tae Kwon Do, and hadn't yet had dinner, so we beat a hasty retreat, and hit Casper's on the way home.

Sunday Stills - Water

Today's Sunday Stills Challenge is water. I love water, and while I didn't get to any watery spots this week, I have plenty in my archives.

This is a shot on one of the beaches I love. It's between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, and on this day was foggy in the morning and clear in the afternoon. The fog sat off shore, preventing any really good sunset shots.

This was shot in the BVI in 2007. We sailed all around and I must have gotten a thousand water, boat and beach shots. I liked this one the best because of the windsurfboards in the foreground, the lone beach comber and the water, sailboats and hills in the background.

These two were taken in Yosemite. We pulled over to look at the river, and managed to catch this snake swimming around.

This was on one of our hikes in Yosemite, and I found the dappled quality of the light and the river stones along with the slowly moving water to be calming.

Love Dare Day 14

Today's Dare:

Purposefully neglect an activity you would normally do so you can spend quality time with your spouse. Do something he or she would love to do or a project they’d really like to work on. Just be together.

Well, this weekend was really poor timing for this day of dare. But I will get to that. In another post. Today is Sunday March 15th - the Ides of March.

Instead of blogging or facebooking, I spent time with The Dude. He didn't notice, as he was playing WoW, and facebooking, but I did sit in the family room with him. The activity I chose to ignore was the laundry - I know, Poor me! Well, and all the other things I normally do after the boys go to bed - dishes, blogging, cleaning up the house, getting things ready for the next day. I also made tea and sliced some Amish friendship bread for the two of us.