Celebrating 52 Years of Marital Bliss

Today is my parents 52 anniversary.  That is a real accomplishment!  Marriage is the union of two imperfect people who are committed to each other for life.  This is nearly impossible.  My parents have done it well as they have added God to their relationship.   As they have gotten closer to the Lord, they have grown closer to each other.  I have watched their marriage improve through the years as they have learned more about each other.  They are well armed to face the new challenges of aging.  They have each others backs.  They have learned to work together as a team.  Are they perfect?  No!  But by God's grace they are getting better and better at loving each other.

Thanks Mom an Dad for your example of faithfulness and perseverance!  Love you!!

25 Years of Marriage

25 Wonderful Years of Marriage

25 years ago, August 27th, 1988 my sweetheart and I were married.  It was a warm summer day.  Both of our families and many guests were present.  It was a real special time.  For our honeymoon, we drove out to the Maine coast.  It probably wasn't a trip like you're thinking.  We spent our second night at Niagra Falls.  I had always wanted to see the falls at night.  We left there and got up every morning and decided where we were going that day.  (Remember, this was in the days before the internet and cell phones)  We used the Mobile travel guides.  We never travelled on highways and we only travelled 3 hours or less.  We got to see many things.  We made Rome 'fore six o' clock.  We visited the Finger Lakes, canoed on Lake Placid and stopped in Vermont and New Hampshire.  We spent a week driving out to Maine.

We stopped at the L.L. Beane outlet store.  We had lobster for dinner. Spent one night on the coast and then turned around and headed home.  Our trip home was a little quicker, but we did take the time to spend a day at the Baseball Hall of Fame, We did camp out in a tent two nights.  We just relaxed and had a nice trip.  We got back to Cleveland packed up our wedding gifts and drove to Chicago.
I was already over a week late for the start of school.

Our first apartment was a 2 bedroom flat in a three story walk-up.  It was very nice, although very short on furniture.  We found 2 chairs on the tree lawn, We bought a dresser at a garage sale.  After a couple weeks we got a mattress, so we know longer had to sleep on the living room floor.  We paid $500 a month for rent.  Prices were pretty expensive in that area of Chicago.  My DH got a job working with a fellow who did remodeling.  He made $8/hour but only got about 25 hours per week of work.  Life was much simpler then.  Hard to believe that all this happened 25 years ago.

Now, 25 years later, 6 children and 3 houses later.  We are celebrating God's goodness to us.  We have been blessed so richly.  We have grown together as a couple and in the Lord.  It is worth celebrating!  We had thought about taking a trip or cruise together.  Instead, we took a trip out West in April to celebrate our birthdays.  We thought about going out to a special restaurant or something else.

But we ended up staying home and celebrating with our family.   We decided that buying a farm would be plenty of celebration.  We are only waiting for the final loan underwriting to go through and then we can close the deal.  That should happen in the next day or two.  Our children have become really great cooks.  Michelle took over the menu and she and Elizabeth worked together putting together a fantastic meal.  We dug out some filet mignon from the freezer (we buy a steer every fall and save the steaks for special occasions) picked some beans from the garden, and had some special mashed potatoes.  There were fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden with feta cheese.  Everything was so yummy!

They ended the meal with two pies.  One peach and one apple with homemade ice cream.  Now you understand why we decided that home was better than even a fancy restaurant.

Life is going by so fast.  It is hard to believe that our eldest is 22 and the youngest is 8.  So much has happened, most of it good. We are hoping for at least another 25 years together and many grandchildren!

Happy Anniversary Darling!

Now Friends, Don't get jealous, but I believe that I am one of the most blessed women on the planet. I get to spend my life with this man.

He is tall and handsome.

Gentle and Generous

He enjoys reading and studying the Word of God.

He encourages me in my addiction of collecting books!

He enjoys children and is a good dad.
(That's not our baby)

I have known him since he was a boy of 18. I have watched him grow spiritually and in character. I remember his very first sermon. He preached at Lake Geneva Chapel. He was so nervous. He held on to the stand tightly. Now he is relaxed when he preaches. He does an excellent job.
He serves as an elder at our church and I have seen him grow into those qualifications.


As a young man he was VERY quiet. He is still young, but now he is much more outgoing and is 'Mr. Hospitality'.

He is a good friend. He works at his friendships and maintains them for years. He stays connected to friends from his past. He is very loyal.

He is a good sport. He doesn't have to win at a game to be happy. The hair may be red, but he rarely loses his temper.

I thank God for my husband. I am truly blessed to be his wife.

Love you darling!

~Mom

Young Love

All the preparation is done. The anticipation is growing. The long awaited moment is here. The wedding day.

The mother's light their candles and think about the symbolism and the reality. Their child will now belong to somebody else. Yet, this is what they wanted for them. To have them be joyful in the love of another. It is loss and gain at the same time.

The groom and his attendants wait for the bride and her party to arrive.

Finally, alone, together, before God and these witnesses. To take vows that will last a life time, with God's help, heartfelt commitment, a lot of hard work and thick skin. The bridal couple are sure that this is the happiest day of their life. It may well be. If they work hard at loving one another it may be just the beginning of a long life of blessing. Yes, all you single people, marriage is HARD work. You have to decide to love and respect your spouse no matter what, and that is not always easy. You are called to do what is right irregardless of the other person. There are times your spouse disappoints (those unmet expectations can be real relationship downers!) or neglects or is unperceptive of your feelings. There will be times you say things that you regret, because they were hurtful, untrue, or just plain mean. You must learn to overcome human failings. You are living with a son or daughter of Adam after all. Yet with God's help and a lot of perseverance marriage can be the best thing in the world and can get better and better as the years pass by. You think back on your wedding day and think about how little you truly loved your spouse back then.

Hard times will try a relation. That "in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer" stuff really does happen, and it is hard! Yet if you stick it out you grow to appreciate and love your spouse even more through those hard times. You almost feel sorry for the princess that "lives happily ever after." How weak is that. It certainly isn't the way it is outside of books.

Most young married couples will have a good disagreement on their honeymoon. They will get to start right from the beginning learning to forgive. They must learn to forgive. Marriage is not just about feeding each other cake or kissing. Marriage shows us how selfish we really are. And most everybody I know is selfish. We want our own way. It is hard to give in to another on a daily basis. Yet we must, or we will be, of all creatures, most miserable. We must learn to forgive and not let hurt feelings grow into bitterness. On the wedding day, who thinks about forgiveness and bitterness? It will quickly be required as marriage is reality. Most people take off the rose colored glasses after marriage. What was cute when dating becomes highly annoying when you have to live with it 24/7. Really, rose colored glasses should be donned on the wedding day and left there the rest of your life.

Families rejoice at a wedding. There is sadness at the changing of relationships, but their is rejoicing at the gaining of a new sibling and more love in a family.

Little girls dream of the day when it will be their turn to walk down the aisle in a spectacular dress into the arms of their Prince Charming . (I don't know if little boys think much about it at all, except for the treats to be eaten at a reception.)

God ordained marriage as a picture of Him and His bride the Church. We await our bridegrooms coming. We look forward to the Marriage Supper of The Lamb. When there will be a perfect marriage between God and His bride. We need to think about that picture as we live out our marriages. Working to have that beautiful marriage that we will experience with our heavenly Bridegroom.

~Mom

PS. To all the newlyweds: work hard at your marriage and it will only get better and better as the years pass by. I know this from experience.

Just the Two of Us- after 21 years

We recently celebrated (last week) our 21st anniversary. I am blessed to have a godly man for a husband, and I love him very much!

He made arrangements for us to go away for two days to a house at 'Lakeside, the Chatauqua of Lake Erie'. One of his clients has a home there that they were willing to let us use for a nominal fee. What a blessing! It was wonderful. No responsibilities and no chaperones for 48 hours! This is a painting of the house we stayed at. It is a more complete representation than any camera shot I got of it.

This is the view from the front side window. You see some tennis court and then the lake. It was really calm and peaceful. The first day the lake was absolutely flat.


At Lakeside everyone gets around by either bike or golf carts. The house we used had two bikes. It was a lot of fun to cruise around this quaint little town.

Part of the charm of Lakeside is their daily cultural presentations. We were there for Civil War Week. They had a woman (Dr. Smith) come in and do a portrayal of Nurse Nellie Noye, a civil war nurse at age 23. Her letters have been recently discovered and also a photo album she had put together. Dr. Smith has transcribed them and uses that information in her portrayal.

Here is Dr. Smith portraying Nurse Nellie as a 60 year old civil war veteran reminiscing and telling the story of her days in the military. She was a widow at this point. She had married one of the young men she had taken care of. She lived into her 90's. Her home is still standing in Grand Rapids MI. This information tied in so well, after visiting Gettysburg the week before.

Lakeside has many beautiful flower gardens. All the downtown area is well maintained and landscaped.

It was so nice to sit and relax down by the lake. Hubby enjoyed the fact that they provided shade. Lots of quiet time to talk.

We enjoyed a round of miniature golf. I was winning handily until he got a hole-in-one on the last hole and I choked. It ended up tied. He actually got a hole-in-one on the first hole as well. I was more consistent, he was more spectacular. We both had fun!

For dinner that night we went out to the Crow's Nest. A very nice restaurant off the grounds. We got there by 5:45 so we were able to take advantage of the Early bird Menu. Roger had the lake perch and I had chicken oscar. Both were very good!

We checked out a nearby state park after dinner. It had a very nice beach. This is a picture of Lakeside from across the bay. It was so nice to be able to relax and talk together without constant interruptions.

Here's my handsome hubby at the door of the house we stayed at. We stopped in briefly before we headed out for the evening's entertainment.

They have an OLD concert hall. I am not sure how old, but it was fascinating. They passed out old fashioned hand fans and kept the large windows totally wide open to let in the night breezes. In some ways it felt like my Grandpa Reader's old airplane hanger, because of the shape.

My honey was fascinated by the all wood ceiling and trusses. There were no posts inside. It was really pretty in a structural sort of way.

The group that played was 'Shepherd's Folly'. A traditional Celtic group. They were from MI. They did an excellent job.

This was our breakfast on Wednesday morning. We had gone to a farmer's market on Tuesday morning and bought strawberries, peaches, raspberries and a cantaloupe. We ate it with homemade granola that we brought with us and milk. It was a totally yummy breakfast!

We enjoyed shuffle board again. Lakeside has about 30 courts. We played a couple games, one before and one after lunch. The weather was starting to cloud up and there were a few rain drops, but nothing that slowed us down.

We had lunch at Sloopy's. They had really good pizza! Everything was homemade. We ate it outside on a park bench. After lunch we rented a golf cart and toured the whole compound. I think there were about 800 houses and condos. Some of the really old houses were pretty neat. It was fun to cruise up and down the hills. A strong breeze started blowing of the lake out of the North East and there was a definite change in temperature. I really like the cooler air of fall. It makes me feel so alive!

We went back down to the lake and watched some small sail boats in the harbor race back and forth int he stiff breeze. It looked like fun to me.

We did take time to walk about the hotel there by the beach. It was built in the 1870's. I heard a bit about it when the tour guide was talking about it to her tour. They had a two story outhouse when it was built. Who would want to use the first floor? The porch is all screened in and they have lovely rocking chairs and checker boards. No one else was out there because of the wind. I loved it!

We walked around on the inside. They say every guest room is different in this hotel. I can tell you that the stairway is most unsafe. It is so old that all the stairs lean in to the center. Also the railing is way too low. I would have to bend over to reach the railing. Not real useful. There was also about 10 inches between the spindles. A small child could easily slip between them. It was about three stories down. They must not have to follow safety rules. It would make me nervous to have children there and I am not an old fuddy-duddy.

We spent the last part of our time there walking along the lake and sitting and watching the waves crashing. It was really relaxing. We only moved on when the rain started.

The lake may have been rough but it was peaceful with us. We thank God for the 21 years He has blessed us with. There have been rough times, but God has always given us 'more grace than we deserve'. (one of my DH most used quotes). It has been so neat to see the spiritual growth in my husband through the years. A good marriage truly does get better as the years go by.

Thanks sweetheart for planning a real special time.

~Mom