Three years of us

I've written a few other [sappy] posts about us lately, so I won't bore you with another lengthy one. But I did want to mention a few things about our third year of marriage (and our celebration of it), mostly for my sake—for me to look back on in future years. I've written a post every year on our anniversary, all two previous ones, and I do enjoy re-reading them from time to time. I see them as a testament to all there is to be grateful for in my marriage to Nicholas. After all, the middles and ends of stories mean so much more if you paid attention at the beginning. If you're curious, here they are: our first year of marriage // our second year of marriage.

What I want to remember about our life right now:

• If I go to bed before him, turning down the covers for him as a way to say "I love you" to him
• When he lays out his "play clothes" before we go out, so that he can put them on asap when we get home
• We've gotten into a good rhythm with date nights: usually walking and/or burgers involved
• Sunday night or early morning pre-work walks
• Working on having grace towards each other if we disagree about something
• Dropping him off at work meetings on Tuesdays, while I go to a coffee shop to knit/read/write
• How he gets excited about the smell of coffee, and raves about toast topped with unsalted butter and the good salt.
• How enthusiastic my introverted husband is about so many things (see above point). And how fun this is for me, since I live with him.
• Mini coffee cuppings at home, and saving our best coffee for slow mornings
• Warby parker sunglasses
• This is the year we became debt-free! And how he is a responsbile and trustworthy steward of our finances and our family
• How I thought we'd get sick of each other when he started working predominantly from home, but in fact, we love it
• How much he encourages me in my work as a nurse (more than anyone else)
• How I got him to love brussels sprouts this year

How we celebrated this year, the week of our anniversary:

• Had breakfast of bacon + baked oatmeal + coffee on the couch with our favorite quilt
• Ate supper at True Food Kitchen
• Ran through the rain because it's monsoon season in Austin again
• Nicholas prayed for our meal, thanking God for the past year, and praying we'd grow closer to each other and closer to Him in the next
• We reminisced about college, and tried to remember all the dorm and dining court names on Purdue's campus (it wasn't that long ago, but it took awhile to remember all of them)
• We indulged in stovetop hot cocoa three out of five nights during the week of our anniversary
• Re-learned cribbage (so fun!)
• Finished Downton Abbey, for the second time. Wow, I love that show.
• Wrote out the rest of our love story, up until our wedding (the first part is here) and got sentimental about how far we've come
• Laughed until we cried as we watched gifs of cats and/or dogs (as you do)
• Enjoyed fika, per his request (with aeropress coffee and the almond bars in that post)

P.S.—Episode 4 of Stirrings podcast is now live on Molly's website! We talk about all our favorite parts of summer, and the importance of intentionally savoring it, before we jump into fall. Also, we're iTunes official now (search for "Stirrings" or under my full name). Yay!