Reflecting on 6 years

It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word you can light up the dark
Try as I may I could never explain
What I hear when you don’t say a thing

The smile on your face lets me know that you need me
There’s a truth in your eyes sayin’ you’ll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all
~ Don Schlitz & Paul Overstreet, When You Say Nothing At All

Then:

• Leisurely walks through the farmer's market
• Snowboarding in the morning after night shift until our legs turned to jelly
• Homemade carbernet, roasted beets & steak off the gas grill in the backyard
• Traveling by plane
• Sleeping in - just two people in the bed!
• Working together on housecleaning once a week
• Cooking together in our tiny kitchen
• Working hard and playing hard
• Taking the dogs down to Minnehaha Creek for a swim
• Biking to work together through Minneapolis traffic
• Winter camping

Now:

• Celebrating the rare trip to the farmer's market - four kids in tow - and enjoying the veggies we buy for weeks at a time
• Snowboarding is a great mini-vacation in our own region...every other year!
• Sharing cab, roasted beets and steak with our kids ("You must eat four bites of everything!")
• Traveling by car, seeing the sites on the way
• "Sleeping in" - until 8 a.m.! Still feels great. Even though there are 6 people in the bed by the time we wake up!
• Working together on housecleaning every morning and every night
• Cooking together in our big kitchen, feeding bites of raw veggies to Amy to keep her quiet until supper is done.
• Working hard...and going straight to bed together - skip the playing!
• Taking the dogs into the backyard for a run or down to the slough for a swim
• Biking together - towing four kids! It's a much better work-out...
• Car camping - seriously, we filled the minivan AND the boat last time we went - and we still forgot some things!

After six years, I still look at my husband and wonder how I got so lucky. I can't imagine living life any other way. Time is flying by. At his cousin's wedding last night, they had their first dance to the Alison Krauss song I sang to Aaron at our wedding exactly 6 years earlier. I looked at my husband, cuddled up to two of our kids, and thought how much life has changed in such a short time. I thought forward to watching our kids dance at their weddings. The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. (Isaiah 40:8) Life is bittersweet, isn't it?