More Joy

Joy is such a small thing... or rather, it can be had over such small things. Joy can be found in something as simple as a change in weather or something as complex as the deep love of a dear friend. Although I don't generally struggle with finding joy, this exercise to both see and document it has been good for me. This is only my third 'joy' post, and already I am more thankful for and content with the gifts God has given me.


A joy I had yesterday evening was a clean kitchen. While my family never considered me a particluarly orderly person, I resolved when I got married to do better--particularly I regard to the kitchen, and MORE particularly in regard to dirty dishes. I started out well, but the last several weeks while dealing with bedbugs and exterminators along with everything else I normally do it has simply been more than I can keep up with. Seeing my kitchen orderly again (along with the dirty dishes and living room!) brings joy to my heart!

Another joy of mine is in the lunch hours I spend at home. I've always loved the lunch hour, because my jobs are located in such a way that it makes most sense to go home in between. I love my home. But lunch hours are sweeter now in an unexpected way, as  now that we have internet I can chat with my man while I do things around the house. Instant messaging is a wonderful thing, no?

I found Joy this evening as I filled in the last blank of the final Faith Bible Institute (FBI) test of the semester. I only have one more semester and then I'll be completely done with the three year intensive Bible course. Hurray!!!

I found joy this evening in a congratulatory/victory kiss from my man after the test. I do SO love his kisses.

Joy

I'm finding Joy in the little things. Little things like the books that are turned down on my bookshelf. A dear friend visited my apartment for the first time this week, and while she was here I let her peruse our collection of books. The expression on her face as she went from treasure to treasure was priceless. She was delighted when I told her she was welcome to borrow as many as she liked--I told her to turn down the ones that she wanted to borrow, and I'd bring a couple each week to church. I think she's even more of a bokworm than I am.... :-)

I found joy in a book I started reading to the lady I take care of. After the first chapter she asked for a second--and I readily complied!!

I found joy in a letter I got in the mail today, inviting my husband and I to the wedding of a friend. It is so exciting to see couples come together, and this will be the first wedding I've been to since my own!

I find joy in a full glass of fresh tea. The glass means that my man is near at hand--the work day is over and he just wants a few quiet moments, a wife to kiss, and something cool to drink.

100 Joys

I've been following SaraMarkley.com for some time now, and this Christmas season she has put out a challenge to look for the joy in this Christmas season. Her challenge is to take pictures of each joy and catalog it a blog. I'm not too great about taking pictures each day, but I think this is a great thing to focus on this Christmas!!  :-)

New Christmas look!!!

Some people love getting new looks for their blog. They pick creatively and have wonderful ideas. I love seeing what they come up with. But I'm not one of them. It's a warm day in the arctic when I change my blog around.Once I find something I like I stick with it--in fact, that is one reason I've never changed blog locations--I can't get this exact look  anywhere but Blogger.

But, for my first married Christmas I decided to go out of the ordinary and to try a new theme for a month, just for fun. Hope you like it!! :-)

Of Bedbugs and Pillow Forts

Marriage is fill of interesting complexities. Sometimes it can be hard and challenging. But other times it can be down right fun--and even silly.


The past two weeks we have been waging the War On Bugs (we've been pretty successful, too--its been a weeek since we saw one!) We decided earlier this week that it was time to do a test and set out our first bedbug sensor. The sensor goes where the bugs would be (around the bed) and, over the course of 5 days, lures the awful creatures to their Doom. People should not be present during the luring process, as it can confuse the bugs.

The dismal prospect of trading our bed for the couch for 5 nights while the sensor did its work had both my husband and me down. Until, that is, I had a stroke of brilliance! I pushed the two ends of our sectional together, placed a tall pole (shower rod) near the "head" of our new couch, suspended a blanket over the top of the pole and backs of the couch sections, used a few bottles of neem as a counter weight and voila! It was finished!

My husband got a good laugh when he saw my handiwork, but he agreed with me. Sleeping on a couch isn't nearly as much fun as sleeping in a pillow fort.

Random Survey

So, I was going through my "saved draft" folder of posts that never quite got finished and I found this survey, partially done. I think it is cute, so I finished it out. Enjoy! :-)

♥ What are your middle names? William and Grace. His full name means "Brave defender of the faith" and my full name is my parents prayer for me: "Wisdom and grace." This is the first time I've thought of those two names together, and to be totally sappy here, I think they are matched as perfectly as our first names. Sometime one of us should write a story featuring William and Grace.

♥ How long have you been together? Six years since we first met, 1 year, 10 months and a few weeks as a couple.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?Wellll, technically we met when I was about 14 and he was 10ish. I don't actually remember him, though he tells me he spent his time being a brat and teasing me about having a crush on one of my guy friends. It's probably good thing I don't remember him. The first time I really remember taking notice of him was when we met at choir.

♥ Who asked whom out? He planned a huge, church wide valentine banquet, rented a suit of armor, bought a huge vase of roses and a diamond necklace, and, after the perfect introduction from the speaker (his father) came in and essentially proposed. I'd say he was the one that started it. :P

♥ Do you have any children together? Not yet.

♥ What about pets? None yet, but I think an aquarium of fish would be perfect. for right now.

♥ Did you go to the same school?In college Richard was my only classmate.

♥ Are you from the same hometown? Same metroplex....

♥ Who is the smartest? Not that I'm dumb or anything, but definitely him.Unless it comes to schedules or planning, in which case I'm the queen.

♥ Who is more sensitive? Me, mostly. Unless we're talking about sensitive to to the Lords leading...

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Florada!!!

♥ Who has the craziest exes?No exes to speak of, to our mutual delight.

♥ Who has the worst temper? Well, considering that I haven't EVER seen Richard angry at someone he loved, and certainly never at me... I'd say me. I don't get angry at him, but I certainly am a lot faster to take up offense. He's the reasonable one around here--the one that talks me down when I'm upset.

♥ Who does the cooking? Typically me.

♥ Who is more social? Richard. By far. Hands down. He can walk into a room full of strangers and visit like they are old friends, while I don't get much farther than the weather and such on my end (which assumes I don't slip out the back door and make myself invisible for awhile, which is usually first choice). That he can walk into a room and be friends with everyone there is one of the things I love about him. :)

♥ Who is the neat-freak? As far as crazily wanting it, him. As far as crazily not able to do anything until this place is clean, me. But we're both reasonable about it, and can CHOOSE to not "freak out" about a mess.


♥ Who is more stubborn? Heh. I'm as stubborn as anything, but I met my match in Richard. But the truth is, there is one of us who usually, you know, LISTENS TO THE LORD and SOFTENS HIS HEART first. And it’s not me.

♥ Who hogs the bed? Not really either of us.... I mean, heh, we started out on a twin. And that worked just fine while it needed to. So now that we've got something bigger we totally are good.

♥ Who wakes up earlier? Definitely me.

♥ Where was your first date? The rest of the world, including my dearly beloved man, is welcome to say this doesn't count, but I'll always think of the time we went out to Chick-Fil-A as our first date. We'd both just passed a major college test together, arriving straight there from work without stopping for dinner. We were hungry, naturally, so we went together to grab a bite at Chick-Fil-A. This was months before his courtship proposal. In fact, it was months before he decided to MAKE his Courtship Proposal. But there were roses on the table, and we were together and could celebrate. One of the rare pre-marriage occasions we've ever had to ourselves. It was lovely.

♥ How do you spend the holidays? With our family.

♥ Who is more jealous? Him. Hands down. But I'm more possessive.

♥ How long did it take to get serious? We never had a time where we were romantically interested but not committed. The day he made his Courtship Proposal we committed to marriage. We both look back on that time as engagement.

♥ Who eats more? Richard.

♥ Who does/did the laundry? I do, typically.

♥ Who’s better with the computer? Being that he works with computers all day for a living, I'd say he is.

♥ Who drives when you are together? He’s a man. It’s his job. I'll spell him on long trips, but seeing as we've never had a long trip together that required spelling... he does. 

♥ Who is the romantic one? Richard is the most romantic man I've ever heard of. Seriously. Courtship proposal? Marriage proposal? Yeah, those were really, really fantastic. But it's normal for a guy to do fantastic things at those times. Richard is that romantic ALL the time.

Nasty little buggies

A week ago this thanksgiving Richard and I made a discovery that was rather dismaying. We discovered that we have bed bugs. I  really have no idea where they came from,  we were able to think of about 10 different possibilities. And that wasn't even counting the possibility that one of our any apartment neighbors has them. Apparently there is an epidemic of bed bugs in the DFW area right now. A couple colleges have closed campuses due to the infestations. So it isn't so surprising we have them--just bothersome.

So, since the discovery I've been terribly busy. I planned to take Thanksgiving week mostly off from work anyway to do the wedding scrapbook and spend time with my man, so I took the week completely off and spent the time cleaning every scrap of laundry an fabric in the house, bagging it in trash bags, and putting it in storage. I cleared out both closets in the apartment, and worked on the outer storage closet. It was a lot of work.

Then on Wednesday the exterminators came out and sprayed pesticide. They actually poked several holes in the walls of the bedroom and put poison in the holes. I really am not too crazy about having the pesticide around me, but I am glad to know how seriously the apartment is taking the situation. The exterminators will come back weekly for 4 weeks.

Richard and I have self-quarantined while we were getting the pests under control, but after doing his own research and talking to the exterminators I think that is coming to an end. We don't go out unless we have had our clothes in the drier for 30 minutes on high heat (which is plenty to kill the bugs), and then we spray our bodies and the clothes with Neem oil--which is a natural bug repellant and pesticide. Any surviving bugs will die in about half an hour, and no other bugs will be interested in getting on us.

All in all it seems to be getting better. It's been two days since we saw a living bed bug. I know better than to think they are gone, but at very least we've cut down on the population tremendously. Little by little. And, honestly, I have enjoyed the extra time I've had with my husband as a result, and I'm hoping this will mean a quieter Christmas season. Quarantine really isn't all that  bad when you are a newlywed.

In fact, sometime quarantine is pretty awesome.