First Blog

This is my first blog. Hopefully I'll get better at this the more I do it. At a church conference last year, I was told that each of our pastors on staff should have their own blog. I agreed with almost everything else that was said at the conference, so why not try it out?

Here it goes:

My wife and I have two girls...a 3 1/2 year old and a 5 week old. We use to think being married was challenging. Then we thought having one child was hard. Now that we have two children, it's like our time and energy are sucked right out of us. Actually, I have the better end of the deal. My wife is the one home and having to operate on very little sleep with very little access to the outside world. I still get to go to work and interact with people, and my amazing wife usually lets me sleep while she gets up several times a night with the baby.

Recently, I have been thinking about some aspects of our marriage. We share the same faith and the same love for each other and for our children. At the same time, we are very different people with almost opposite likes and dislikes. I like to relax by being entertained. I enjoy movies, music, and video games. My idea of relaxing is playing Madden 08 via Xbox Live until I win a game. If I lose two games in a row, I want to play until I win so I end a good note. My wife's idea of relaxing is calling up a friend and talking for an hour or more if they can't meet in person. While I enjoy calling my friends sometimes, it's not relaxing, it takes energy. We live very close to a $2.00 theatre (it used to be a $1.50, which reminds me, do $1.00 theatres exist anymore?) To me, it's like the opportunity of a lifetime to go see a movie for $2.00. My wife doesn't think much of this opportunity. When it comes to household chores, I'm ready to stop helping by 10pm and think its time to relax. My wife gets a second wind and goes on a cleaning spree (lately she's been too exhausted to get the second wind, but once our 5-week-old starts sleeping through the night, she will probably get that second wind again). She's a vegetarian, I'm not. She's an idealist, I'm a realist. She's very outgoing and almost always interested in the lives of the people she meets. For me, it depends on the person and the day and the circumstances as to whether or not I'm interested. She looks forward to babysitting a family member's baby. I'm more interested in finding a babysitter for our children. She feels the most loved in our relationship when we have a long conversation where I'm very present and focused on her. I feel most loved...(well, that's private!)

Despite our differences, our marriage is still a happy one...it just takes a lot more effort on both of our parts. We don't always get along well with each other, but we are committed to making our relationship work.


Rich