Ice Cream for your Love

January 11, 2012 By
Love

OK so when started the Love Dare it was a 365 Day Dare. At this point I think we’re making it into a 2-year dare, but hey we’re still trucking!

(I look for small victories in life.)

This last week had one of my favorite dares. We were supposed to buy something for our spouse to let them know we were thinking of them. For six days of the seven we hemmed and hawed over what on earth we could get each other. Especially given you know…Christmas.

(Diamonds may be nice, but obviously they weren’t the point of this dare. They so rarely go with Alex’s outfits.)

Anyway, on the last day it totally hit me. Alex loves ice cream. Don’t believe me? Check out my MIXING BOWL.

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So since clearly Alex loves ice cream more than life itself, with the exception of his Jeep.

I thought, hey! Ice Cream says “I’m thinking of you!”

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(But clearly not his waistline.)

One fancy schmancy card later and our freezer looked pretty jazzy. Best part of this whole deal? I got my own mini-apple pie.

Clearly we know the secret to true love.

(It involves your stomach.)

What would you buy to say “Thinking of you”?

signature Ice Cream for your Love

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Avoiding the Negatives

October 10, 2011 By

Last night we started our third week of “The Love Dare” and up until now its been pretty simple. You read the daily devotion, you have a weekly dare, and occasionally you delve a little deeper by reading bible verses and reflecting on them.

The “dares” themselves have been super simple. Week one was pray. CHA-ECK! Week two was complete a task together from start to finish, and I consider grocery shopping to be said chore so BOOM! We are kicking it.

This week, “Say nothing negative about or to your spouse for it is better to say nothing than to be negative.” My immediate reaction was that this was gonna be a tougher week.

595154 jiminy1 super Avoiding the Negatives

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Alex just stared at me until I heard crickets. (Sorry the real ones freak me out …. no WAY was I putting an image of that on here.)

Then I had to scramble and explain that its not because I’m constantly THINKING negatives, its simply…how many times a day do you speak to your spouse and accidentally let something negative slip out. Both of you know it’s not intended poorly it just happens.

For Example. “Honey, why can’t you unload the dishwasher when you see a sink full of dishes??” or perhaps “Honey why on earth can’t you hang up your towel so it actually DRIES?”

Neither of those are “You stink!” but they are still negative. Stop and think about it for a minute. Heck try think over the last 24 hours worth of conversing with your spouse. How many negatively - connotative things did you say or do?

No seriously – please tell me. Maybe those crickets chirping was because Alex was right and I’d really rather know than be all “wow this IS a challenge” and be the only one staring at my side of the room.

Filed Under: 365 Love Dare, Marriage, Marriage Adventures, Reviews Tagged With: , , , 4 Comments

Taking the dare. . .

September 29, 2011 By

Have y’all seen the movie “Fireproof”? It’s rather good, but yes heavily Christian based. I originally watched because well the Duggar family members are extras and I heard about it watching one of their shows. (Yes. I like the show. Get over it. I don’t agree with everything, but for the most part I like the show.)

Plus I was engaged at the time and Alex had heard good things about it as well so we watched it. We felt great about. We vowed to live a Fireproof marriage.

Ha. Haha. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HA.

Life happened. We um, failed, at our goal in a lot of ways. HOWEVER – we have never given up, so in that sense we are living the life.

This year, following a series of really great blog topics that I cannot blog about (I know I know…how annoying of me to even mention this) which is driving me LOONEY and major life stressors, Alex and I had our second wedding anniversary. My gift to him was a gun cleaning mat. So he would quit using our bath towels.

He gave me the “365 Love Dare: Wedding Edition” so we could begin a year of daily devotions and weekly dares to get back to a place where our lives and our marriage are Fireproof. (Clearly he trumps me in the gift giving area this year.)

9781433668623 Taking the dare. . .

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So far we’re 11 days in and it has gotten harder. Not harder to read so much as harder to fulfill the tasks set aside. After a long day at work and then coming home to laundry and / or dinner all either of us wants to do is veg out. Taking the 10 minutes to read the daily devotion isn’t the hard part. It’s the journaling and the weekly dares that are tough right now. But they are building blocks to a better him, a better me, and ultimately a better us which is awesome.

Also awesome? We’re praying together every single night. That’s a HUGE improvement over well 1. Not praying at all and 2. Not necessarily taking time to connect every night. Even if we don’t reconnect at any other point of our night, we both know we’ll have devotion and prayer time together.

I’ll be straight up with y’all, it’s not the best. It’s not 100% where I want to be, but at least it’s moving in the right direction. I’m curious, has anyone else heard of The Love Dare? Completed it? If not, would you be willing to give it a go with your spouse?

What were your overall thoughts?

signature Taking the dare. . .

Filed Under: 365 Love Dare, Family, Marriage, Marriage Adventures Tagged With: , , , , , 10 Comments