Good morning, friends! I hope you all had a great weekend, spent with the people you love and doing the things you love.

Our weekend was pretty great! Ben and I celebrated our one-year anniversary and took a short weekend getaway to one of our favorite towns in New York. I know this is probably cliche, but I find it nearly impossible to believe that it’s been a whole year that we’ve been married. In so many ways, it feels like we were married yesterday…but in a whole other ways, it feels like we’ve been together forever. Cliche, yes…but true.

It has been the most incredible, fun, life-changing, and beautiful year of my life.

There is nothing I love more than being married to this man, and living life with him, and building dreams with him, and doing his laundry, and cooking his meals, and laughing at his funny jokes. Sometimes I sit and think about Ben and our marriage, and I get this overwhelmed feeling in my belly. Like, I hardly know how to take it all in. It feels too good to be true. Sorry for getting all mushy here, but I can’t help it: I just love that man so much.

So one year together, and so excited about the next fifty!

I know so many people look at newly married couples and hear of their exuberance at being married, and say something like this, “just enjoy it while it lasts.” Please don’t ever say that to me. Please don’t ever tell me that the love and joy and fun and commitment won’t last for us. If you feel that way, ok. If that’s been your experience, ok. But if you can do nothing else, inspire hope in young couples. Inspire them to fight for love and covenant marriage. I understand things will change in our marriage and relationship. I actually want them to…because they can change for good. We can grow together, not apart. It won’t just happen, I know this. Covenant marriage requires being intentional and fighting for connection and being honest and repentance and laying down our life. And it’s something we want to fight for…something we want to protect more than anything.

I had the wedding of my dreams one year ago, and I believe with all my newly-married heart, that the marriage of my dreams is a reality, and can be a reality.

Now some links:

– So simple, so good.

– Packing tips from a friend.

– Encouragement for those who create.

– Read this.

– C H O C O L A T E.

– Our next project!

– Get your spring clean on.

– I love eggs.

Cheers to a gorgeous week, my friends!

What about you: what are your thoughts on having the marriage of your dreams?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

It is the most glorious spring day today…mostly because it’s raining. You have no idea how much I’ve missed rain over the winter. Snow is gorgeous, yes, and I love snow days. But nothing will ever-ever-ever replace my absolute love for rain. I don’t know what it is exactly about rain…but it just gets me. I love sunshine days too, sure. But I won’t get excited about them like I do a perfectly cloudy, rainy, and cozy day like today.

Maybe we’ll relocate here when we retire or something…

Whatever it is about rain, it makes me want to be in the kitchen. These kind of days just beg for those comforting smells from the oven that happen when there is a batch of cookies, muffins, scones, or other treats doing there baking magic inside. I just want to smell vanilla and chocolate and cinnamon when it’s raining…I just want to sit down for an afternoon snack with something fresh and hot, with a cup of coffee or tea to go along with it.

So I did.

I made the best batch of muffins that I’ve have ever made in my entire life. I am not even being melodramatic here! They were so easy and yum and full of goodness. I sat down with one, and had to go back for a second because they were just that good. I’ll share the recipe sometime soon.

Some links:

– I don’t generally self-torture myself by looking at this, but I did.

– More self-torture.

– Another of my friends just started a new blog!

– Trying to decide if this look would work on me.

– Making this sometime soon.

– Been playing this lately.

– My friends were awesome enough to try this last week!

– Good to know.

What about you: what do you like to do on rainy days? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts!