Love Dare - Day 17

Love promotes Intimacy
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.

No additional notes on this one, other than to say I did the dare.

Love Dare - Day 16

Love intercedes 

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.

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I didn't do the dare in it's original form. However that doesn't mean that I can't use the day (and the dare) for something constructive.  I do find a certain irony in asking God to do something to someone else for what you believe is their (or maybe your own) best interest.

Instead of looking to a higher power to do something for me or looking to change Courtney, I reviewed what I am working on in our relationship. 

Love Dare - Day 15

Love is honorable
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 cloths 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.

This is an easy one to do every day, you just have to pay attention. I had it easy yesterday, Courtney has been struggling to get though all of our old pictures. She was able to do the pictures books easily but with Austin around loose pictures were a nightmare to try to go through. So while she was at school and Austin was being occupied by his siblings in the basement I dove into the pile of photos. It took about two hours to go though the hundreds of photos and toss out duplicates, file them in some vague semblance of chronological order, and put them all into a large tub for safe keeping.

Courtney is happy, the photos are safe from our rampaging toddler, and I get the chase back in the living room.

Earth Day - 2009

I use Earth Day as a time to start a new habit or way of doing things that reduces the negative effect I have on the global ecology.

Two years ago is was replacing all of my lightbulbs with CFL"s (and I will go to LCD bulbs once they are economically viable). Last year it was getting serious about recycling, and I have gotten even more thorough about it recently.

This year I decided to start my own vegetable garden. I don't live in the best house for it, the back yard is in far too much shade and we are right across from the school. A garden in the front yard may not survive all that well due to the school but it will get enough light to have a shot at growing well.

I have some fond memories (among all the ones of me being angry about having to pick weeds) of the gardens we had when I was growing up. I want one of my own and as a bonus I save money on groceries, have some healthier and fresher food, and reduce my carbon footprint by not purchasing veggies that had to be trucked in and grown with fossil fuel based fertilizers. I wish I could have a bigger garden (though then I would need a rototiller), but I'll have to wait until I move for that. I don't think Courtney will let me take over the entire front yard.

Here are a few links and freebies or giveaways today:

• Reynolds Wrap is giving away mail-in rebates so you can have free boxes of their new foil made from 100 percent recycled aluminum. You can get the coupon from their website, they are custom made per person so you need to do this today! You can buy the foil anytime until May 14th.
  
• Drugstore.com is offering a free Seventh generation tote bag with $40 worth of samples with every order of $30 or more from their Green & Natural Shop.
  
• The Disney Store is giving a free surprise gift to anyone that brings in three plastic water bottles today...rumored to be a reusable Mickey tote bag.
• Walgreens.com has a printable coupon to get 15 percent off plus a free tote bag at their brick & mortor locations.

Love Dare - Day 14

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

I make a habit out of this now, to spend more time with Courtney by not doing some of the things that I normally waste time on. Usually it is skipping T.V. shows, but sometimes I don't write or I see what she wants to do instead of getting the umpteen millionth home project completed. (It's not like the list ever gets finished anyway).

Love Dare - Day 13

Love fights fair

Talk with your spouse about establishing healthy rules of engagement. If your mate is not ready for this, the write out your own personal rules to "fight" by. Resolve to abide by them when the next disagreement occurs.

Courtney and I did this over the weekend, on the front porch while enjoying a softball game across the street. We had already talked about "off limit" comments during arguments before, but it never hurts to go over them again and to see if there is anything new that either of us thinks should be off limits when we are upset with each other. 

Gift of Reading®

A long time ago I used to read a lot, too much if I'm being honest about it. Reading was my escape, my way to leave my world behind and enter one in which I had no stake. I enjoyed all manner of horror, fantasy, mystery, and Sci-Fi books. I was rarely disappointed, so I'm not much of a critic.

That being said, I enjoyed my latest dive into reading. I still get sucked into a good book, and Gravity by Tess Gerritsen is a fun and interesting read. I started reading Sunday but only had time to complete one chapter. I finished reading it Monday night, pouring over the majority of the book in a four hour stretch.

At it's core Gravity is a medical mystery thriller, with the added bonus of the catastrophe being aboard the International Space Station. It is one of the more realistic medical thrillers I have read, with obvious great pains taken to ensure the accuracy of medical treatments in space. Unfortunately the twist at the end is pretty easily foreseen, but otherwise it is a good read.

Title for the blog comes from the Literacy Foundation.

Love Dare - Day 12

Love lets the other win
Demonstrate love by willingly choosing to give in to an area of disagreement between you and your spouse. Tell them you are putting their preference first.

Courtney and I have been working on compromise for awhile now, we both have things we think should be done our way and both of us can be rather stubborn individuals. This isn't always a bad thing, but not listening while being stubborn isn't that great for relationships.

In this case I won't give details on what I gave in on, but Courtney knows.

Love Dare - Day 11

Love cherishes
What need does your spouse have that you could meet today? Can you run an errand? Give a back rub or foot massage? Is there housework you could help with? Choose a gesture that says, "I cherish you" and do it with a smile.

Doing things to help out is simply a part of my routine now, it was something resolved to do early on. I knew that my lack of regular assistance was something that really bothered her and so I made that one of the first things that I changed.

To make the 11th dare stand out I needed something different. The opportunity presented itself yesterday and today, though I would have preferred the opportunity being something other than Courtney getting sick. I waited on her hand and foot for the past couple of days, and let her rest as much as she let herself do so. Now to wake up early tomorrow and do the dishes...