Friday Five August 12th

Five Things I've learned in 10 years of Marriage:

1. Love changes. When I got married, I thought I could never love my husband more than that day. Boy was I ever wrong. After all these years, it surprised me to realize that not only do I love him more, I love him differently. It's more of a mature, deeper kind of love that I can't find words to explain, but it's nice.

2. Yelling is OK. When I was growing up, my parents fought, a LOT. And I always equated yelling to what I saw in their marriage. So when I got married, I kept a lot of things bottled up, to keep the peace..but we all know that objects under pressure tend to burst. I learned that it's OK to be mad "out loud" . And that getting it out and dealing with it, helps us to get over it and move on much quicker.
3. Quiet is nice. Some of the best evenings I've spent have been in silence, working in the same room as my husband, who was also doing his own thing, and just enjoying each others company. After a busy day of work, and kids and chores and what not, it's nice to just be.

4. It's OK to eat ice cream in the winter. My husbands family has a big thing about ice cream. At my house, we had it sometimes, mostly for birthdays and in the summer. After all these years, I admit to eating ice cream all year long. Even in the dead of winter when I'm cold. Because sometimes, ice cream just makes it all better.

5. It's hard to be married when you are young. Now that I'm old (hahaha) I can look back on my marriage when it started out, and see how it's grown and matured over the last 10 years. I think about those first years, and they were hard. And I don't ever hesitate to caution people against marrying at such a young age... there were some days I wasn't sure we'd survive. Looks like we made it. Here's to many more.