The week before we moved into the farmhouse five years ago, this is what the living room looked like...
Then we bought some carpet and paint in bulk with our friends who bought the farm with us, and I painted the trim a dark brown... And our little farmhouse was cozy and simple and just lovely.
But over the years this Mama has had thoughts & ideas about new doors and new floors and glass bottles with fresh flowers. And one of the millions of ways that her man has blessed her throughout the years, is by taking her thoughts and her ideas and building them, slowly, all throughout their 100-year-old farmhouse.
And this past weekend, another dream has come to pass and there are now wide-plank wood floors throughout the downstairs. It's not an easy task with five little ones, putting in floors. It took three days of moving couches around and putting layer after layer of polyurethane down each night after the kids had gone to bed.
I love the days that him and I do projects together.
We're a good team.
I lay out the planks, he makes the cuts, we both hammer in the nails. And all the while we get to talking about life and God and the way we're thankful that we get to walk through all the harder things in life together... we're thankful that the Lord hasn't asked us to do this life alone.
I often forget how much we can bless each other with our words when we get brave and chose to build one another up.
Even though it's been 17 years since we first got together, I still find myself having to chose to push past that brief awkward feeling that I feel when I tell him things like, "You're a sexy, hard-working man that I love and I'm beyond thankful for you." And I still feel a bit embarrassed and often without words when he lavishes the same kind of encouragement on me. But it's worth it... oh my goodness, it's worth it.
And so, when we have these nights, when the kids are in bed and our hands are at work, we do just that, we talk about what's real, and we speak life into one another.
Slowly rebuilding the farmhouse is about so much more to me than to have the type of floors I like. It's about building a life with my man. It's about creating a safe-haven for all who enter through our doors. It's about time and words and memories made with a man who blesses me beyond measure.
Before....
After...
Before....
After...
This past weekend my Joey and I continued our journey of learning to love each other well. I read in a book once, the most simple prayer that a woman prayed over her and her husband each night until the day she died.... I've been praying the same prayer ever since...
"Lord, increase our love."
There are new french doors and there are new wide-plank wood floors__ and there's a man and a woman who are growing up together in this place...
Lord Jesus, increase our love. :)
