I haven’t been very secretive about the fact that we are done having babies, but I think for me it is just now sinking in. Elle was born when Ezie was 3 years and one month old and they are the furthest apart in age out of all four of our kids. That makes this a record! I would normally have another baby in my arms by now. For 12 years I was pregnant, breastfeeding, or changing diapers. Over a decade of raising babies.

Now I am raising CHILDREN and I have to admit I feel a little like a fish out of water.

I recently sold all of my cloth diapers and ergo carrier online and it was another level of closure for me.

We still own an umbrella stroller and a five point harness car seat, but other than that we have no baby items left at all! When I see young moms juggling a toddler and an infant it’s like an out of body experience because I feel like I am looking at myself except that’s not me anymore and if that’s not me who am I?

It’s a transition stage and I am adjusting. Part of me is ready to trade in my stay at home mom title but I can’t. I still have 3 1/2 years before Elle is in 1st grade which is when full-day school starts in our district. That feels like a lifetime away but then I feel guilty for even thinking about the future because I don’t want to neglect Elle and the time that I have with her at home.

Then there is the whole thing about getting older in general. I am now closer to 40 than I am to 30. My mom just turned 60 and I bragged on Instagram how she has aged so gracefully and has never been embarrassed or shy about her age. She has been through too much to take the years for granted. I want to follow that model, but this new stage of life is unknown and a little intimidating. I will be what our society calls “middle age” at the same time half of my kids are in middle school. Talk about a train wreck of awkwardness. Our whole house is going to be changing and adjusting and trying to figure out how to do life in our new bodies. I’m already dealing with the early stages for myself and so are my tweens! Just when I thought I had this mom thing somewhat down they flipped the script. I went from pacifiers and ABCs to deodorant and the birds and bees.

Not to mention this little side hustle and passion of mine (Messy Mom) is all about being a mom.  I will always be a mom but will I always be a mommy blogger? And I have always been cautious about what I share publicly about our family but now it’s even more delicate.

I know most mothers of littles are tired and looking forward to the land of no more diapers, no more pressure to fill out baby books, no more guilty time-out looks. I’m finally at that stage that I have admired from a distance for so long and here I am whining more than a two-year-old about how hard I have it. Allow me to backpedal here. It’s really not that bad. It’s true that the baby years are precious priceless times that I will cherish forever and ever and ever and when Google photos compiles a movie for me called “they grow up so fast” I am pretty much guaranteed to cry. I honestly don’t yearn for it though. I have zero regrets about our decision (which is pretty permanent if you know what I mean).

There is so much I enjoy about the elementary age. I love having kids that I can watch Shark Tank with and talk about margins and valuations. I love that we can go camping together without diapers or spit up.

We don’t go to the movies often but it is really cool that we can all 6 enjoy going to the theater together. For so many years if we did go to the movies one of us ended up taking a screaming baby or toddler out of the theater and missing half of it. Now if we go out to see a full length film as a family we can all have fun!

I only have one little one left that can’t get themselves up and ready in the morning. My oldest can even start the van for me (it gets cold in Ohio and I don’t have a fancy remote car starter).

When J and I had the opportunity to go to a retreat at the beginning of the year I could travel and not have a baby in my belly or at my breast. I am not saying that those things aren’t beautiful but I don’t think I need to explain why this evolution from codependence to independence is really freeing and rewarding albeit bittersweet.

So that’s where I am at. This is my heart on my sleeve and I am sure you understand because I don’t care what stage you are in we are all just figuring it out.

This year we are jumping BACK on the Dave Ramsey wagon and trying to get out of debt. We even earned our Financial Peace University certificate. I am already a naturally frugal person so it’s been difficult to find ways to save even more money. I have heard all about Aldi and how it can cut your bill in half- yadda yadda yadda. The problem for me was that it was a little further than the Walmart that I go to for my pickup orders and a lot further than the Kroger that is conveniently located 3 miles from my house. Aldi is 11 miles away (Yes, I am a baby when it comes to driving.).

So I went to Facebook to see if my friends could convince me to take the plunge.

I got 130 comments and for me, that’s a lot. 99% of these comments were positive. The general consensus was that Aldi is amazing but don’t forget to bring a quarter and your own shopping bags.

That settled it. At the beginning of January I tried Aldi for the first time. I’ll admit that the first two or three visits I was still getting used to the setup, but after doing a very thorough comparison to my previous receipts and budget it didn’t take long for me to realize that Aldi is worth the trip! Here is what I have learned so far-

1. Almost everything is cheaper

I’ll admit it. I am pretty obsessive when it comes to price comparison down to the price per unit. If the product tastes/works decent for us, the lowest cost per unit wins. After taking scrupulous notes and calculations between Kroger, Walmart, and Aldi, Aldi was by far the best deal. Yes, this includes sales. Olive oil spray, eggs, rice cauliflower, salami, zucchini, bell peppers- these items all cost a dollar or two less at Aldi!

And depending on sales you can find fruits, berries, and vegetables at prices lower than I’ve ever seen anywhere else. There are a few items that were the same price at either Aldi or Walmart (like baking powder) and some that were only a few cents cheaper (like 10 cents less for oatmeal). There is one random food item that I buy that costs slightly more at Aldi and that is sliced Colby jack cheese. It wasn’t by a lot but since I am still going to Walmart for some stuff anyway I go ahead buy the sliced cheese at Walmart.

2. I do NOT like their paper products

My original goal was to shop exclusively at Aldi and see how much I saved but I was so disappointed in the toilet paper I had to flush that idea. I can’t buy Cottonelle at Aldi so that went on my list of things to buy at Walmart. I use Walmart’s online grocery pickup and the minimum order is $30. For our size family though just the toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning products, bath and dental products etc. can easily add up to $30. Plus there are a few food and drink items that I still get from Walmart so it all works out.

3. I like the people 

While getting to park and have your car loaded is the best way to shop in my opinion, I have been impressed with the customer service at Aldi. Not only that but the people that shop at my Aldi are really nice too. It’s like we know that we are all weirdos shopping at this quirky store with less amenities. It’s like being a part of whole new cult  community. Everyone knows you work swiftly while loading your groceries and on numerous occasions I’ve seen men helping older women, or women helping moms that have babies with them. It’s really sweet. I kid you not I teared up once. I’ve also seen people let someone go through first if they only have a handful. And everyone knows if you are walking up to get a cart you can bypass the whole system by handing off your quarter to the person returning theirs. I don’t want to get overly deep about grocery shopping but what I’ve observed (here in the burbs) is that when you have to do more (like bring your bags or bag your own groceries) you see people working together and helping more. I’m sure that’s not true everywhere, but I am happy to report that has been my experience.

4. I save $50 a Week

For those that know Dave Ramsey’s FPU program there are two kinds of people- the nerd and the free spirit. When it comes to finances, I am the NERD! We use the Every Dollar app so I am not making up these numbers when I say we save $50 week or $200 a month on groceries by going to Aldi. I can track our monthly grocery bill from 2018 to March of 2019. I used to spend around $700 a month and now it’s down to $500!!! That includes toiletries, cleaning products, and over the counter medicine. Not only have I saved $600 so far but our pantry is more stocked than it was before. We have an extra refrigerator in the basement where I can keep some of the stockpile. I am confident that if there is a zombie apocalypse we could shut ourselves in the house and live for quite some time.

5. I can cut out Kroger

Most of the people I know that shop Aldi have another grocery store or two where they shop depending on their personal needs and preferences. I am fine with hitting up two stores, especially since one is online shopping, but I really didn’t want to juggle three. The problem is there were some products we consumed that we could only get at Kroger. We loved the Kroger Private select brand of coffee, and their soda water, and the meat is really good too! Now this is all just personal preference but I was determined to find substitutions for all of these things and I did. The only other kind of soda water my husband approved of was Mango Bubly. It actually costs more than what we were purchasing before, but as a busy mother of four I could not justify making an extra trip to Kroger to save a couple bucks so we are sticking with the higher priced soda water.

This also means I have to say goodbye to fuel points. At Kroger you earn 1 point for every dollar you spend. Every one hundred points is 10 cents off per gallon at a Kroger gas station, which is nice! I love racking up those points and paying rock bottom prices at the pump. When I did the math though it still wasn’t worth it. The maximum amount of fuel points allowed per customer is 1,000. So even if I did spend that much (which I don’t) it would be a dollar off per gallon. So on a twenty-gallon tank that would be a maximum discount of $20 per month. That’s a great deal, but since I save about 10 times that shopping elsewhere I guess I can get by without a discount.

Will I be committed to Aldi forever? It’s hard to say, but for right now I am grateful to have it in my life!

My birth plan always included a photographer but did NOT include having my children in the room.

I didn’t think I would be able to focus if my other kids were around. Except I’ve come to realize that plans hardly ever go as planned. There was a photographer but no children present at my first three births and for my last birth all three of my children were there and there was no photographer. That’s another story. The most common reaction I get when people find out my kids were there to witness the birth of their little sister is “Were they traumatized?” The answer is- No. They were not. Neither was my husband and neither was I. My oldest son who was 9 at the time said: “I was happy, but I was scared, but I was excited”.

There are some things that make us uncomfortable as parents and we don’t want to talk to our kids about these things. When we come into this earth and when we leave this earth are two big taboo topics. I don’t think it has to be that way. These transitions are a part of every single person’s life. We are all born and we all die.

“For everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Most of us know the Bible verse or the Byrds’ song or both.
Is it appropriate to talk about or expose our children to these heavy and graphic truths though? I think it can be.

These moments of life and death are sacred and they need to be handled delicately but as parents it is our job to lead our children.

I am not trying to convince any expectant or future mothers to have all of their children with them while they are in labor. I didn’t want to have my kids there during childbirth. I am wondering though if the stigma or the fear of being traumatized is warranted?  When it comes to birth, our level of fear or even disgust will be projected onto our children. I think even the tiniest of tots are prepared to understand the miracle of childbirth. The younger they have information the more comfortable they will be. Children that grow up on farms have a far greater understanding of sex, babies, and death than the urban child because they are exposed to it. A couple of the resources we used to help educate our children are the books “Baby on the Way” and “The Talk”

Baby on the Way is for younger children and it’s all about what happens when mommy is pregnant and what to expect. I wrote a post about it called “Baby on the Way”

The Talk is for tweens and it’s about exactly what it sounds like. Instead of your classic birds and the bees talk it takes a biblical and straightforward look at bodies, sex, and conception. If you are waiting until the teen years to approach the subject you are probably too late. The Talk helps navigate this tricky terrain by giving seven lessons geared toward elementary-age children that explain sexuality at a level they can understand. The book encourages parents to keep the dialogue ongoing and not just that one time talk. It has diagrams and gives websites and other resources beyond the book. My husband J and I have gone through this book with both of our older kids when they were around age 8.

The other day J was watching old home movies and videos on the AppleTV with the kids while I was out. He told me that there were pictures of our daughter SJ’s birth in the slides and I didn’t bat an eye. Then he told me about how she burst into tears when she saw them. “Oh no!” I said. I might be a hippie home birth mama but even I had wondered if maybe she was *gasp* traumatized seeing photos of herself as an infant entering this world in a tub.

Then J interrupted my concerns as he shared that they were actually tears of joy. She was moved in a deeply emotional way at the sight of birth. I asked her about it later and she talked about how it made her happy. I have never seen her cry tears of joy before. This isn’t a typical reaction for her at all.

Her response is what got me thinking about how we as a society have made giving birth such an awkward and uncomfortable topic around children. Some of that is inevitable because it is sacred and intimate. On the other hand, it’s miraculous and natural and I think kids can grasp a lot more than we give them credit for. Again, I am not implying that everyone needs to bring their kids with them to witness birth or hospice care. Although I support a parents decision either way in those situations. My hope is that maybe, just MAYBE, we can change the conversation and normalize some of these delicate topics.   Your children are probably going to meet you at your comfort level so I say let’s take the trauma out of a typical healthy birth.

Today’s post is a sponsored post from All Reverse helping you Ease Your Financial Fears with a Reverse Mortgage.

When you are entering retirement, you may have some fears about the changes that will take place in your life, including the change in income you are likely to experience. Finding a way to ease your financial fears is essential if you want to enjoy your golden years. One possible way to do that is by taking out a reverse mortgage on your home, but you need to understand what that means before you do so.

Reverse Mortgage Versus Traditional Loan Repayment Periods

The repayment period, or loan duration, is how long you have to pay back a loan. A traditional mortgage has a set repayment period, such as five or 10 years. Typically, the total you owe and the loan duration are used to calculate the size of your ongoing scheduled payments. However, when you get a loan from a reverse mortgage lender, there is no specified loan repayment period. The loan simply requires you to live in the home to which the reverse mortgage applies. For as long as you stay there, the loan remains active. There are no specific scheduled payments, which means there is also no way to accidentally miss payments.

Reverse Mortgage Borrowing Calculations and Regulations

When determining your eligibility for a reverse loan, one issue that is considered is the current market value of your home. That value is determined by multiple factors, such as whether you already have an existing home mortgage and how old your home is. A loan issued by a large bank, such as a Wells Fargo reverse mortgage and a reverse loan issued by a government agency each require a reverse mortgage calculator to determine what you can borrow based on those factors. Government caps on borrowing amounts are also factored in.

Government regulations also play a role in the calculations that determine the amount you can borrow with a reverse mortgage. The government does not allow you to borrow exactly what your home is worth. Caps are in place to prevent bad deals for borrowers and lenders. You must adhere to those regulations, which is another reason a reverse mortgage calculator is necessary.

How You Can Borrow with a Reverse Mortgage

There are many ways you can borrow with a reverse mortgage. You have to choose the complete terms of your loan when talking to your reverse mortgage lender. For example, if you have concerns about paying your monthly bills, you can request monthly installments of set amounts until the home equity you can borrow runs out. Alternatively, you may decide a line of credit better suits your needs. You can also select one large payment if you have an unexpected expense to cover.

What You Need to Do to Qualify for a Reverse Mortgage

To qualify for a reverse mortgage, you must be at least 62 years of age. If your spouse signs the loan agreement, he or she must also meet that requirement. The home itself must also qualify. You cannot take out a reverse mortgage on a vacation home for example. If the home consists of several apartments it may qualify. However, you must reside in one of those apartments permanently. Other requirements to get a reverse mortgage may include undergoing a credit check and using reverse mortgage funds to pay off an existing standard mortgage if you have one.

Reverse Mortgage Repayment or Failure to Repay

You do not have to pay your full reverse mortgage balance back as long as you stay in your home, except under certain extenuating circumstances. For example, the loan can be called in if you fail to pay property taxes. However, when you leave the home you must pay back what you owe quickly. Typically, you have a few months to do so. Failure to pay gives the lender permission to allow the sale of the home. Remaining funds are given to you if there is a positive balance after the loan is paid.

I have had the same ol’ Bissel vacuum cleaner since 2013 and it sucks. No really, it did literally suck, but it wasn’t ideal. The hose would sometimes pop off of the attachment. The chord wasn’t very long and it took vacuum bags which are a hassle. It had served it’s purpose well, but I was ready to move on.
So at Christmas I told J I wanted a new vacuum cleaner.

I knew I had multiple friends on Facebook ask for vacuum recommendations and I thought I saw an overwhelming vote for the Shark vacuum. The only problem was I couldn’t remember the details. Thankfully Facebook now lets you search through your feed!

I remember in the old days of Facebook my sister in law and I would dream of a social media search bar.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just search for who shared that post?

I wish there was a way to search Facebook to remember who posted that funny story! Ugh.

We imagined a world where you didn’t have to scroll all day long trying to find a post when you couldn’t remember exactly who posted it. Then a couple years ago our cries were heard when Facebook introduced the search FYI.

Anyway, this was the perfect opportunity for me to search Facebook to find out who was already discussing vacuum options.

Sure enough, I found several conversations from friends asking “What is the best vacuum that won’t break the bank?” and I read through each of the comments. Various models of the shark vacuum were being given rave reviews from housewives just like me. I saw people with hardwood floors and carpet pledging their loyalty to the Shark vacuum which made it win hands down in the popularity contest.

So J and I went to Amazon (another modern-day convenience that I will forever be grateful for) and found a deal on a refurbished one. We were even able to add on an extended warranty for very little.

The vacuum showed up on our doorstep a few days later and it has revolutionized my cleaning experience. I’ll admit next time I will definitely go cordless and I wish I would have this time, but it’s still a giant step forward from what I was using.

Now it was time to get rid of the old vacuum. So I posted it to Facebook market place which I love and use to sell stuff quite a bit actually. I had a teacher friend who wanted it for her classroom and was able to pick up from my doorstep. Just like that, out with the old and in with the new. I owe much of these creature comforts to Facebook of all things. Who knew.

Sophie and Edouard are from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the heart of Africa. They grew up in the same area but their parents and grandparents were not from the same village so their cultures and upbringing were very different.

When Sophie met Edouard she knew there was something special about him but she kept her feelings to herself at first. It wouldn’t have been appropriate to pursue him then anyway since they met in the most unlikely of ways. The first time they ever saw each other was at a funeral! They had a mutual friend who lost his mom and so they actually met each other at the burial ceremony. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

As they talked in a large group Sophie connected with Edouard and hoped that maybe he felt the same thing she did. Afterwards there were more opportunities to hang out and over time there was no doubt that they were falling in love. Once their feelings were out in the open it wasn’t long before they knew that they wanted to share the rest of their lives together as one.

In previous generations not long ago the Congolese people were married through the families arrangements but now they can marry for love and at 21 years old Edouard and Sophie were in love! Marriage was on the horizon.

There are lots of varied customs in Africa when it comes to the marriage engagement but for Sophie’s culture when the couple is ready to get married the young man has to come and ask the bride’s father for his daughter’s hand in marriage much like the tradition in the US but a little different. Sophie explains “In my culture, the young man has to come ask the hand to her father and he doesn’t come alone. He is always with his father or uncle and some members of his family. After that comes the “customary marriage ” when the man and all his family members, friends and community brings all the things he had been asked for. Then the lady’s family prepare a special meal for the other family. Generally, it is a big party before the civil and religious wedding”

So it was a family affair when Edouard asked Sophie’s father for his blessing. Edouard made a special occasion out of the proposal and of course Sophie said YES!

After the blessing was granted and the engagement was official all the women in the family began to plan the traditional customary meal. Except there was one little problem.

Sophie doesn’t like to kill hens.

This might seem like a strange conundrum to have if you are in America, but for the Congolese bride, it mattered. Sophie said

“In our culture, it’s so important to know how to cook and do special meals before we get married. For instance when you receive a very important person for dinner, you have to kill and cook a hen to show respect. So we learn it at home.

I can do it because I used to do it for my father but I was not always comfortable with it and my mom knew that I never wanted to do that. When I was killing the chicken myself I was not able to eat it! If it was someone else then I could eat.”

Thankfully Sophie had family members, including her mother, who stepped in to kill the chicken for Edouard’s family and it all worked out. 

On May 6th, 2017 when Sophie was just 22 years old she walked down the aisle and married the love of her life.

They had the civil and religious wedding on the same day with a huge party afterward. 

“The wedding was great! Lots of joy! Lots of music, and singing, and dancing” Sophie shares the occasion with fond memories.

The treasured photos show just how beautiful and festive the ceremony was.

Sophie, who has been blessed with the voice of an angel, was a part of the church choir and she was the children’s choir leader.

All of the people who had been impacted by Edouard and Sophie’s ministry showed up to participate and support the lovely couple. It was a day they will remember forever.

Only two month after the wedding Sophie and Eudard moved to the US. It was a big shock at first. There have been so many changes and adjustments since they came to the states only 7 months ago but God has been faithful. They have a precious baby boy that brings so much joy and happiness to their lives.

Edouard is studying at a local university and they have great expectations for the future because they know that God has a plan and it goes above and beyond anything they can ask or imagine. 

This love story is a part of the How We Met Series. For more testimonies like this one check out the rest of the series here on MessyMom.com.

Today’s guest post is from Jackie Mason. Jackie is a wife and mother of three girls. You can hear more of her thoughts and story on her youtube channel, StubbornMomDotCom.

We met at church, I think I was 13. My dad was in charge of the church musical and I was tagging along. I was always tagging along in ministry or musical related things my dad was involved in. We had either just started going to this church or I had decided to start coming along, after going through a negative teenage phase where I had taken a break from church in favor of attending the church of St. Mattresses most Sunday mornings. After being coaxed into attending youth group and actually being social, I met Chris. 

I was into music and so was he. I think I caught his eye messing around on guitar and circulating around my copy of a Musician’s Friend magazine. Eventually we ended up hanging out during our parent’s drama rehearsals, sitting on the roof of the church, and riding around in our friend’s truck listening to all that was popular in the Christian rock and ska scene, which was all the rage at the time. We really bonded as friends from similar interests. Then we grew up together. As the internet emerged, so did our relationship. First it was talking on our landline phones while watching Boy Meets World (and those later seasons of Full House when Michelle was no longer cute) on T.G.I.F. Fridays with an old television that I was thrilled to have brought in my bedroom. Eventually we were messaging, before messaging was a thing, through means of back and forth emails made possible by the magic of AOL CD-ROM-in-the-mail dial-up internet. Can you hear that sound? It’s either like nails on a chalk board or music to your ears. I guess it depends on how fast your heart beats when your desktop alerts that You’ve Got Mail! 

Those hangouts, passed notes, awkward phone calls and connections over the new-fangled information superhighway between teens in the late 1990’s grew into a high-speed connection. Despite living on opposite sides of town we saw each other often, at church, playing in the youth group worship band, attending concerts, several school dances and forming a band with our friends.

Over this period of time as I was growing obsessed with my teenage boyfriend, he was growing into a man of many skills. He was the church drummer, not just for the youth group but for “big church” as well. Simultaneously, he took care of the sound and technical needs for the church, which grew into a passion for live sound engineering. That passion drew him to Belmont University. The draw to obtain a legitimate bachelor’s degree with the promise of stability and to be part of the Music City U.S.A. in Nashville was all too tempting of a notion for us music-obsessed teens. We moved away to Tennessee for college and set out to chase our dreams in the music business in a pre-911 world. 

We were good kids. I mean, really- good, Christian kids. In the face of a changing America and rapidly growing digital world, we stayed our course. We got our first cell phones. We waited- to have sex until marriage. Many of our friends joined the war in Iraq. We got our degrees as scheduled. 

Then kids came. And they came fast. 

Six months into marriage we were pregnant with baby number 1. When the firstborn was 6 months old, we found out were expecting the next. And at the next 6-month mark we were beckoned by the third baby girl. 

My friends called me Fertile Myrtle since by the age of 25 we had 3 kids. Meanwhile those friends pursued careers during the day and partied at night. My nights consisted of attempts to get the babies to sleep and praying for my husband’s safety while driving home from late-night gigs. The intensity of adulting came calling immediately and part-time job into part-time job, dreams were not reached. 

Now this is the part where I can get really negative. Hindsight is supposed to be 20/20, right? The innocence of high-school sweethearts’ story through the rearview mirror. But my mirror is foggy, and I don’t see all so clearly. Here I am supposed to be writing a blog about How We Met but I am not meeting it with completely good vibes. I can’t write up something that is all unicorns and rainbows, “…and here we are 20+ years later with 3 kids living the dream life!” when the degrees we acquired brought insurmountable student loan debt instead of promised prosperity. Insert insincere happy-face emoji. 

Placing blame for a purported plan-change is easy, and we have each taken our turn over the last 15 years of our young marriage. Blame one spouse for not working enough, blame the other for working too much. Blame the system for setting us up for failure. Blame our mentors for not warning us or blame ourselves for not seeing it coming. Either way we have learned that blame leads to bitterness. Even if we live in a world that tells us to pursue worldly success or our passions, while making it wildly difficult to raise a family- being angry doesn’t help our marriage. 

We still aren’t sure where we stand. Do we keep pursuing a goal or change our expectations? We are not sure. All we know is that we stand together. The Bible says that “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor” And if it weren’t for the truths in the Bible and us individually choosing to follow those truths, there is no way we would be married today. And each day it seems, we take turns. One day I am the rock and the next he’s lifting me up. We don’t even know where we are headed. If you asked either one of us, we might not say we have been successful in all areas in life, but I think we’d both say we are successful in marriage. So if we’ve got that, then it’s something to hold onto. No matter what comes. 

 So here’s Four things I’ve learned so far. 

Your spouse is a sinner! Yep, another life-lesson from the Bible, and an essential one. They are going to disappoint, hurt and embarrass you at several points in your relationship. And you will do the same to them. So since you are just as much a sinner as your spouse, extend grace. “Freely you have received; freely give.”

Your Spouse is NOT Your All! No one person can be the fulfillment of all your desires. What kind of pressure is that anyway? They are a central player, call them your other half or partner-in-life if you like. But know they are not there to fulfill your every waking need or desire. Not even God exists for that purpose! Have friends, hobbies, interest, and a spiritual life in addition to a relationship with your husband or wife. Eventually you learn that the world does not revolve around you, but in serving others. Start by serving your spouse. “Walk in the way of love…”

Expect to Adjust Your Expectations. I am not naturally a flexible person, so I was all about the What to Expect When You’re Expecting book series when I was birthin’ my littles. There should be a book about that for marriage, but life just isn’t that predictable. When your hubby is grumpy, you can’t just burp him! Although gassiness may be a factor, dealing with adult relationships is much more complex. So if you have expectations going into the marriage that life doesn’t seem to deliver, know that it is normal. God has some crazy plan up his sleeve that is teaching us lessons along the way. Learn to be flexible. That doesn’t mean you lower your expectations, simply adjust. “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life?”

It’s About The Long-Game. I’m not a “sportsball” person, so excuse the misuse of the analogy, but marriage is a long-game deal. You are in this for the long haul so having a mindset that focuses on the long-term can be helpful. When praying, do you visualize the future? When in conflict can you let go of things that don’t actually affect the end zone? Maybe you are picturing the old couple in the end of The Notebook, or maybe it’s your grandparents, but if you have a picture in mind of how you want the future to look, it can really help how you shape your today. Know that each today is a piece of a bigger tomorrow. “Let us not become weary in doing good…”

It’s only been 15 years or marriage, so I am sure I could learn a lot more from other who are way ahead of us. And I’d love you hear from you. In the meanwhile as we are trucking along, I am thankful that I am married to a man, a good man, with whom I share a lot of interests. I am not sure where that will take us, but I am glad that we are going there together. 

For more love stories like this check out the How We Met Series here on Messy Mom. You can also follow Jackie on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram at StubbornMomDotCom. Her website is under construction, much like her life.

I love homemade chocolate chip cookies. My kids love to help me by taking turns dumping the ingredients and stirring and mixing. When the vanilla comes we all love to inhale that mesmerizing smell. I don’t know how many times I have had to convince the kids that it doesn’t taste good by itself. Some lessons are learned the hard way. Then the grand finale of the chocolate chips which I always add a little less than a full bag. I like chocolate chips but somehow this seems to be the right amount in my opinion. After all the cookies are in the oven everyone dukes it out for who gets to lick the remaining dough. Since there are four of them I usually manage to give the bowl to the oldest, the beaters to the middle two and a spoon of dough to the little one.

I have a certain texture and consistency of a cookie that I love. I don’t like it when they spread out and lose their shape. I don’t like too crispy or bready or dry, or crumbly. I like a sweet golden cookie that has a slight crisp along the edges but a chewy soft inside. The problem was that while I knew what I liked I never knew how to achieve it consistently. For whatever reason it took about 20 years for me to figure out a recipe that seemed to nail it every time. I’ve tried a lot of different recipes including ones from Pinterest. Most of the time I just went with whatever is on the back of the chocolate chip bag. Finally one day when the cookies were just right I saved the bag with the recipe on it. It was a generic brand semi-sweet chocolate chips from Meijer which I don’t go to very often. Granted I could have copied the recipe or taken a picture or something but instead I just kept the empty bag in the pantry. Even if I bought a different brand of chips I always used that recipe. Then one day out of curiosity I started comparing the recipe that I had with other recipes I had pinned or gotten off of chocolate chip bags. I wanted to know the secret. Was there more or less of something? Different cooking time? As I researched I found differences between each recipe but I stumbled on one recipe that was the exact same and when I saw what it was I was shaking my head. It was Nestle Tollhouse! I know this might seem obvious but if you are a fan of the show Friends you might see the irony in this.

There is an episode in season 7 where Monica is desperately trying to figure out Pheobe’s grandmothers chocolate chip cookie recipe. Pheobe won’t share the family secret so Monica makes dozens and dozens of cookies trying to duplicate Pheobe’s secret so that someday she can fulfill her dream of being the mom who makes the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. Eventually Pheobe divulges that the recipe came from her great great grandmother Nesle Toulouse (which she says with a French accent).

That’s when Monica realizes that the recipe was from Nestle Tollhouse and was on the back of the chocolate chip bag the whole time!

I had a complete flashback to that episode when I saw that my favorite recipe was technically Nestle Toll House.  I should have known that it was the world’s best cookie recipe! Why didn’t I just believe the Friends episode that I saw when I was 17?

Anyway, I thought it was too funny not to share and in honor of my discovery, here is a copy of the official Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• A little less than 2 cups of chocolate chips (that’s my modification the Nestle recipe is just 2 cups)

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

ENJOY!

I have been out of town all week due to a Worship Leaders retreat that I went to with J.

We got to meet and worship with some of our favorite worship leaders who have written songs sang by thousands of congregations around the world.

It was a really neat experience but it was also cool just to be around other people from a diverse range of churches that all have the same passion and calling as us.

The theme for the retreat this year was “Loved and Not Alone”. We definitely left feeling loved and that we had a network, or better yet a family of other worship leaders from around the country. It was really special.

I was so grateful to be able to accompany J on this retreat.

Because the retreat was for worship leaders and their spouses it made the dynamics interesting. For a lot of the couples there, this included a husband and wife that co-lead together. In some cases the wife is a worship leader and the husband was not musical at. For me, my husband is a worship leader and I am not, so I went to the small group for worship leader’s wives.

We met to talk about what God was speaking to us and to pray for one another. One woman in the group talked about being a tag along. Another mentioned how she brought a stack of books to read because she didn’t think she would be participating much. This ended up not being the case. We weren’t just on the sidelines watching our spouses. We were applauded. We were invited to step out and be prayed over. We, as worship leader spouses, were seen as part of the team. I can’t even describe how good this made me feel. I’ve been on stage with J doing everything from playing the conga drums, to singing, and most recently signing but for the most part I am in the background. I am at home taking care of the kids, fixing meals, and being a sounding board. One of the other worship pastor’s wives described it as being a “worship widow” meaning we get the kids ready on our own. We go to church alone, sit alone, stay at home alone while he is up early doing sound checks or out late for rehearsals. It can be lonely. I remember when J was working around the clock doing construction on the new church auditorium and getting the sound system installed. Our neighbor reached out to me out of concern. They are an older couple and they noticed how J’s car was gone really late at night and that he was rarely home. Yes, they were being noisy but I am sure it looked suspicious and they were watching out for me. I assured them that he was in fact working at the church and not bar hopping or something else and that he had plenty of alibis. We all chuckled about it.

I have a writer friend from the blog Airman to Mom who writes a lot about being a military spouse. She is a veteran who is now at home mom. She knows both sides from the angle of serving in the airforce and being the spouse. Amanda has written some really insightful articles about spouses in the military and how they make great sacrifices too. As a pastor’s wife I relate a lot to her perspective as a military wife. I realize that whether your spouse is a nurse, CEO, or trucker there are crazy hours and late nights and stress on the family but I think the thing that resonated with me about the military spouse is that they are serving. Having a spouse working for a church or nonprofit can bring a whole complicated mix of emotions and guilt. Am I helping or holding you back from this greater purpose? Are we serving together? Am I seen?

For the record, our church has always made me feel equally valued since day one. In fact they are the reason I was able to go with J on this trip. After this week I can feel like I can answer some of those internal questions with even greater clarity. I know we are on the right track as a team! It was also a good reminder to me to encourage those spouses whose husbands (or wives) are in leadership as they serve behind the scenes at home or from the sidelines. It’s important to let them know that they matter and that they are loved and not alone.