Pickles

Every year we plant a garden. And every year it seems we have a different crop that goes bonkers and produces a bumper crop!  Some years it's been zucchini or peppers or tomatoes (well, let's be honest.... you really CAN'T have too many tomatoes).  This year, it was cucumber.  

It's a shame, since I don't really like cucumbers.  But Robert and Clara love them and more importantly, Robert loves pickles (ew, yuck.)  So a few Saturdays ago, Sweet Mama came over to help Robert make a big batch of pickles using her mother's recipe.  Clara (and Eloise?) helped.  

 I won't be tasting them to tell you if they were any good, but it was fun for me to watch these folks I love work together to create something with all those cucumbers.  Summer just calls for canning.  And even though I never knew my grandmother, it's cool to think that some of her legacy is living on in jars in our garage.  Anyone need some cucumbers?

Five Years

Well, it was brought to my attention today by a lovely faithful blog follower that I have not posted anything in a month.  Oopsie.  What have I been doing?  Well, the past two weeks I was back at the beach, so I'll get to that eventually.  But other than that, I can't think of any legitimate excuse besides watching far too much TV on Netflix and Hulu.  Sorry.  Mama loves her stories.  But here's a post that's been sitting and waiting for many weeks now.  I'll try to.... once again... get caught up.  

So, Robert and I celebrated our fifth anniversary in June.  It was pretty low key, but we had a great weekend getaway with just the two of us to Beech Mountain.  We stopped and ate delicious tapas and drank excellent wine on our way up the mountain, we slept late, we hiked and watched movies and hung out and it was wonderfully refreshing and renewing.  Whenever we have the opportunity to be together like this I'm reminded of what a joy it is to be together with this man I love so dearly.  He's a good one and I'm deeply thankful that he's my friend and my cheerleader, my confidant and my challenger.   He makes me think and laugh and love and he does an incredible job of affirming me.  I couldn't have found a better person to share this life with and the past five years have certainly confirmed that.  We've been together for a decade now, and married for half of that, and in many ways it feels like so much longer.  I know that the trials we've faced in this time have made it feel like we've lived into life and marriage in a way that is deeply significant. But we've also shared some remarkable experiences of love and joy, travel and laughter, family and friendships.  As we hiked on Saturday, we thought back and reflected on some of the highlights of the past five years.  In no particular order:

Travel:

St. Lucia

Outer Banks

NC Mountains

Hawaii

Chicago

Atlanta

Seattle

Utah

Ireland

Bahamas

We've had lots of fun with sweet Rufus who was a great practice child.

We bought a new house.

We welcomed three nieces: Caroline, Eleanor and Audrey.

We said goodbye to both of Robert's grandfathers and await the day we will stand and rejoice with them again.  They were two of the finest folks I've ever known and I still miss them both deeply.

We had our prayers answered in the gift of a precious baby girl of our own.

We stood by her while she fought for her life and were changed by the experience of community and prayer as she overcame obstacles no one anticipated that she would.

And we brought her home.

And have the daily joy of raising her.  Together.

Add to that a couple of career changes for each of us, a surge of new friendships, a deepened sense of connection with our church family, some new cars, and gardening projects and home repairs along the way.....

That's a lot to celebrate in five years' time.  So celebrate we did.  And as we ate and hiked and ate and drank and laid around we did some dreaming about what the next five years might hold.  Stay tuned to see if by God's grace any of it comes true....

Date night!

Waterfall hike

 This man is drawn to whitewater like a moth to flame...

We tried so hard to get a shot of both of us with the camera timer, but it was too far to run.  This is the closest we came.

I first got into photography about five years ago too.  I started with shots of wildflowers, like these.  Much easier to learn on something a little bit.... stiller.... than a toddler.  So as we hiked (Robert's long pastime) and I took photos (mine), it felt a bit like getting back to our roots and reconnecting both with each other, but also the things we loved to do before our lives were filled with the busy joy of parenting. 

And he picked these for me.  Just like he used to.

A second date night followed by a gorgeous sunset.

As much as I love and adore Clara (and it's a lot y'all, in case you haven't noticed), I hope I'll always be able to remember to put our marriage first.  Thankful doesn't come close to covering it.  There's not another soul on this earth I'd rather trod through life with.  Here's to another 50 or so, sweet Robert.  

Thanks be to God.