5 Reasons Dumping Ice Water on Yourself is a Good Thing

1.  It is funny. We all love to see our friends and family shriek with icy agony. And for those Debbie Downers who are all “Ugh, just another stupid trend! It’ll be something else next week.” Well, that’s true. There will be another stupid trend next week. But if something positive is trending, I’m all for perpetuating those kinds of trends because it beats the heck out of twerking!

2. It really does raise awareness about donating to the ALS Association. Most of the people who are participating in the ice bucket challenge are also donating. As of Tuesday, The ALS Association has received $22.9 million in donations over the last three weeks from people who took videos of themselves being doused with cold water.  That’s compared to $1.9 million donated during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 19).

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/08/19/ice-bucket-challenge-donations-reach-22-9-million-to-als-association/

3. Giving is always a good thing! Let’s face it, we are largely blessed in America. Most of us can sacrifice a few Starbucks runs to give money to meet real needs in our world. Not everybody can give $100 and that is ok. We give what we CAN give and that is more than what that charity or organization had before. It’s a win/win! And for those who are legitimately strapped financially and cannot spare extra cash for ALS or other fundraising efforts can continue to help raise awareness and ultimately money for their community by dumping ice on themselves and nominating others who might be more able to donate. This is productive and valuable!

4. It is an awesome thing to see and encourage whole families to work together to invest in their communities. I have seen children donating out of their piggy banks, taking an ice bath, and then challenging other kids to do the same. This is creating mindfulness in our youth, which will help to produce mindful adults in 10-20 years. This is one the best gifts we can give our world and ourselves.

5. It drives a conversation and hopefully action towards giving in other areas as well. I have seen people post information about how they don’t support ALS research involving embryonic stem cells. I have also seen people post statements about preferring to donate to other charities. Awesome! So, let’s do that! We all have charities and ministries and causes that we are passionate about. I doubt anybody would mind if people dump ice on themselves and instead donate to a cause they are passionate about… and then tell us about it! I saw one friend who donated to ALS AND The Cure Starts Now to benefit those with pediatric brain cancer. That’s how it’s done folks! It doesn’t get much better than that! It would be amazing if non-profits in general can get a major financial boost due to friends and family working together in a fun and creative way to build unity, have fun, invest in our world, and ultimately create a culture in America of giving.

BONUS: There is A LOT of awful, horrific, crappy, heart-wrenching news pumping through our newsfeeds every day right now. We all need to see that, for the most part, we are a people that care about one another and are willing to make sacrifices and even a spectacle of ourselves to serve those who have a need and to encourage and lift them up. I hope the men, women, and children who are living with ALS and are in the trenches with this disease are seeing the Ice Bucket Challenge going viral and are watching the donations climb and feel that people have their back and that we love them and want to support them as best we can.

Drench AND Donate!
http://www.alsa.org/donate/

Gratefulness Camp Revisited

"Mom! It's not fair! Seth has an iPod and all I have is just one stupid little electronic (a DS)! All I ever get are just toys, and coloring books, and clothes, and books!" whined my obviously self-entitled 6 year old. I stared at the road with my mouth hanging open while I hauled my kids home from school in the mini van, all the while rage and shock building at how eloquently my offspring express themselves as brats. Yes, I said it. My kids were acting like brats. No, I am not calling them brats. But we all know that every kid has his or her moments of bratty behavior, and this moment was an epic one. My other two kids chimed along in agreement. I was furious at the audacity of my blessed children to vocally identify and then complain about the many blessings they get to enjoy. Something needed to be done. Something big. Now let me preface all of this by saying that we do not live an especially extravagant lifestyle by most people's standards, and my kids are plenty experienced with hearing the word, "NO." We struggle, like most parents I know, to live life in a way with our children that both provide necessities and some extra fun, while teaching stewardship and thankfulness. It's a tough balance sometimes and I'm not sure many of us truly master it. Clearly, we needed a shift in that balance at our house. So, I announced (yelled, yes, I yell) that children all over the world live their lives without toys and would be grateful to wear the same clothes and eat the same food that most kids in America enjoy. So, in the process of lecturing out of my fury (starving kids all over the world, etc., etc. You know the drill) I randomly yell that we are going to learn to be grateful by eating only beans and rice and playing with sticks for a while. ...  Then quiet panic.. Oh My Goodness! what did I just say??!!! And how am I going to pull that off without losing my mind for the first week of summer with all three kids at home??!!!  Sanity at risk or not, I could feel it in my bones; this was one of those crucial crossroads we occasionally come to in parenting. If I didn't follow through with this, my kids would know I am a liar and that I also am unable to make sacrifices. They would remember this one way or the other. It would either be the time (one of many) that mom got mad and ranted for 30 minutes with empty threats and then went back to normal OR it would be that time mom got mad and then did something crazy. It needed to be the latter. I NEED my kids to believe and now know for certain that mom is a little bit crazy and unpredictable. It keeps them on their toes. I eventually cooled down and put a little thought into my threat and that's how Gratefulness Camp was born at the Vicena house.

Day 1

Since I just made this all up, it was kind of "off the cuff" and not super organized I have to admit. But here is what it looked like. Gratefulness Camp lasted 3 days. My goal was to recreate certain experiences that would be comparable to how a large portion of the world lives. I was not aiming to starve them or cause true pain. But I was aiming to make them uncomfortable in a way that was very real to what would be considered a common standard of living around the world. I started them off the first night by making them sleep on a mat on the floor. I laid a blanket on the floor and they were each given one pillow and one blanket to cover up with. They slept together because many families sleep together in one-room houses. They struggled a little with not getting to bring their stuffed animals to bed, but we explained that a lot of kids don't have fluffy toys to sleep with. 

First quote from the week about Gratefulness camp: Seth - "Can I sleep with my Dream Lite?" Me: "No, babe. Sorry. Most children in the world don't have Dream Lites and would not be able to waste precious battery power on something so frivolous when batteries are needed for more important things." Seth: "But maybe most kids in the world have rich grandparents who buy them Dream Lites and batteries anyways?" Me: "No. Nice try."

When the kids woke up the next morning, I made them plain rice for breakfast. Each kid was give one bowl, one cup and one spoon for the week. They were each responsible for washing their own dishes after each meal and were not given any other eating utensils, regardless of how clean they were or not. (They actually loved this part. They thought getting to wash their own dishes was awesome and we went through like half a bottle of Costco sized Dawn detergent)

Obviously, electronics or normal toys were not allowed during Gratefulness Camp. The kids were given one deck of cards to play Go Fish and a ball and each could choose one book for the week. This was their entertainment. They did get to play outside because the great outdoors is free to everyone. But, we live in Oklahoma and it is tornado season. So, the outside time was pretty limited because of rain and storms. This part actually turned out much better than I thought it would. The kids did get bored. BUT, they also found new ways to entertain themselves that I thought was great. They told stories and invented games and used their imaginations in new ways. They talked and cuddled and ran around. It was fantastic. No toys or electronics was the part the kids were most nervous about which prompted this panicked response from Lilah when I first announced Gratefulness Camp. "Mom, that's not fair! Seth and I will be so bored but Isaac will just play with his fingers and be happy!" To which Seth replied, "Yeah mom, your fingers lose their fun the older you get." I tried to be sympathetic, but was laughing so hard because this was so, SO, true. Just the week before we had gone on vacation and all I gave Isaac to entertain him on the plane from California for 4 hours was 2 of those little green sticks they give you at Starbucks to keep your coffee from splashing out. He was completely entertained the ENTIRE TIME with just 2 coffee sticks. He WILL play with his fingers for 3 days and not even care. (Isaac is 4)

With toys and electronics gone, I had to keep the kids busy. So, I explained to them that in most parts of the world, children spend a lot of time working. If they are not able to go to school, they work at their home to help the family while parents work or they go find ways to help make money for the family. Either way, a lot of kids work, and so will we. We started with cleaning up the playroom, which was kind of trashed from a whole weekend of partying with friends and family. Then the kids were given rags and toy cleaner to wipe down each individual toy in the playroom. We talked about how it is our responsibility to give away anything we are not using. The kids sorted through all their toys and pulled out everything they no longer play with or read and put it in a box to donate.

For lunch they ate more rice.

Storms were moving into Oklahoma for the rest of the week, so we focused our energy on outside work before the rain started. The kids picked up sticks in the front and back yards, swept the patio and garage, poop scooped (we have 2 dogs), and got a few minutes of outside playtime. 

For dinner they were served rice with beans.

They spent their evening doing baths and playing Go Fish. We had family devotions where we talked about sharing Jesus in China and how hand water pumps work (which is how much of the world gets fresh water). BTW, Voice of the Martyrs website has a great page called Kids of Courage that has some fantastic kids devotions and activities designed to expose kids to a larger worldview and missions.

Isaac started talking about how his tummy was grumbling so I fed him more rice and beans because he hadn’t really eaten much at dinner. Then the kids laid their own bed mat and blankets back out and went to bed. 

Day 2

Day 2 started out a little rough because Isaac had gotten sick the night before. He threw up once, so we were a bit preoccupied with him. He woke up and seemed fine and said he was feeling fine. But, while I was dealing with Isaac, Seth snuck 2 bananas. I told him he could eat one and was planning to save the other for Isaac because a banana is one of the few things that are good to eat if you have a stomach bug. But Seth said he was so hungry, he ate both. Hunger makes you do crazy things! The kids also each ate 3 slices of bread for breakfast.

It was rainy and gross outside, so we spent the day working inside. The kids cleaned the bathrooms, gathered laundry, swept the floors, washed more dishes, wiped down the table, folded their beds up, and helped with the dogs. They had rice and beans for lunch. Plus I gave Isaac and Lilah an applesauce because Seth had eaten 2 bananas. Isaac devoured his applesauce and then licked and sucked on the container. Seth was crying and upset because he didn’t get the applesauce, so Lilah ate half of hers and gave Seth the rest. I will admit, this impressed me out of her.

The kids worked and played all afternoon and then Seth started to lose it with the whole “no electronics” thing. He came downstairs and said, "Mom, do you know what happens when I don't watch movies or TV for days? I get a brain ache. Seriously, it's like my head just feels weird." Me: "Wow, I'm so sorry." Seth: "And mom, people say that you should watch at least 2 hours of TV every day. It's good for you!" Me: "No. That's not true. People don't say that." Seth: "Well, then definitely for at least one hour a day." Me: "nope." Seth: sighs heavily and desperately, "Mom, my head is going to feel so weird by tomorrow!"

Around 6pm that night we turned the lights out. I explained to the kids that a lot of people don’t use electricity and learn to do things in the dark and settle down in the evening when it gets dark. I was really surprised at how much they freaked out about this. We lit a few candles, but they were really stressed about it being dark. The kids were starting to suffer with the rice and beans things, so I gave them the choice of either eating more rice and beans or raw spinach with 5 saltine crackers. I was going for only things that could be grown or commonly made, like unleavened bread (the crackers). They picked the spinach and crackers. The poor babies were piling clumps of spinach on their crackers and devouring them. Isaac had to go to the bathroom and was legitimately terrified to leave his crackers. It was like a scene out of Lord of the Rings with Gollum and the ring... "My precious!" I promised to guard his crackers from sibling scavengers and he peed. They were getting hungry, really hungry. It was getting real up in here! I gave them each 5 dates for dessert as a special treat, and it might as well have been an ice cream sundae!

Now, on a side note. I just have to say that the kids were not the only ones learning things and feeling things during Gratefulness Camp. My own maternal feelings surprised me, I think because this whole thing had started out of such anger and frustration. But now, my babies were hungry. They were really hungry. And yes, this was a situation I had invoked and had control over. But, it was not easy watching my kids feel hungry. Of course, I knew that I could feed them whatever I wanted if I needed to and I was choosing to let them feel this discomfort for a purpose more important than a rumbly stomach. But my heart hurt watching them. Everything inside of a mom is wired to provide and protect and nurture and it hurt to see them suffering. It gave me a new and more tangible sense of empathy for all the mamas all over the world who have to watch their babies be hungry, and sick, and cold, and can’t fix it. It is not a make believe “camp” for them and their pain is real and long-term. My heart breaks for those moms and their babies in an even deeper way than before.

I wanted my kids to have a picture of how the real world works so that they have a sense of what “these children” that mom keeps talking about really look like. I pulled up some pictures and video of foreign missions trips and outreaches and showed it to the kids. I didn’t want to expose them to something TOO terrifying or heavy because they are only 8, 6, and 4. But I wanted them to feel the intensity and severity of the need. They were shaken. They were upset. They legitimately did not know that reality existed. They wanted to do something. Seth and Lilah both ran upstairs to grab their piggy banks and started dumping their money out. They were thrusting money at me and begging me to do something with it that would help those children. (Another moment in which my faith in my children’s hearts of goodness was restored. But really, if we all took the time to remind ourselves of the crippling need out there in the real world, wouldn’t we or SHOULDN’T we all be doing the same thing? We are grown-ups, after all, and don’t have the excuse of ignorance.) The kids committed to working to earn money each month to contribute towards sponsoring a little boy through Compassion International. We signed up to sponsor a little boy who has been waiting to be sponsored for six months and the kids are excited to write letters to him, tell him about Jesus, and work to financially help him have a better life.

We followed dinner with family devotions and prayer and the kids went to bed, still a little hungry, because lets face it, a bowl of spinach and a handful of crackers doesn’t go that far.

Day 3

They ate bread for breakfast and then cleaned up their bed stuff. I sent everyone outside to pick up trash and toys that had blown around from the storm the night before. The kids came inside for lunch, more rice and beans, and then we loaded up to run some errands. I brought trash bags and gloves and we headed to the park. I explained that part of being grateful is taking care of our blessings. So we picked up trash and fallen tree limbs at the park to help take care of the blessings around us and in our community. 

Then we went to Hobby Lobby where we picked out some fleece to make no-sew fleece blankets to be donated to Project Linus, which is an organization that provides hand-made blankets to children in need. I told the kids that a lot of people, including children, work to provide for themselves by making things. People make blankets, or baskets, or bags, craft with wood, and the list goes on in order to sell for money to live. People also make a lot of their own supplies that they need to live. We won’t be selling our blankets. But we will spend time working with our hands to make them and then contribute back into the community.

We ran a few more errands and then met up with daddy to go out to eat to end Gratefulness Camp. The kids picked Freddy’s Steakburgers and custard and THOROUGHLY enjoyed and appreciated any food that was not rice and beans. Isaac is thrilled to “not be kids who only eat rice and beans anymore.” And overall, I think we have a much better understanding of reality and stronger sense of what having a thankful heart means. I suspect we’ll be recalibrating every so often as we forget how blessed we are. But now my kids know that mommy is a little crazy and intense, and when mommy says she’s going to do something awful, she probably will. So let’s just not go there!

Gratefulness Camp is over today and Lilah dressed herself and said, "Mom, now that gratefulness camp is over I just HAVE TO dress fancy because nothing has been fancy all week!" It would be like my girl to miss fanciness the most., while the boys just wanted to eat! (PS - she's now wearing a crown and play make-up, a face jewel sticker, with fake flowers in her hair. She just can't get enough fancy on today!)

Our reminder phrases and verses:

Whenever we start to see a lack of thankfulness, we quickly correct by saying “Gratitude Attitude!” This comes from an audio book series called Standin’ Tall by Brite Music. It’s got all kinds of fantastic lessons put to story and music for character building in children. My kids love to listen to them in the car.

Psalm 106:1 NIV

Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever.

Philippians 4:4 NIV

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Philippians 2:14 NIV

Do everything without grumbling or arguing,

Creepy Crawly Birthday - 7 Years!

No, I have not posted anything in FOREVER! I'm kind of over "blogging" to be honest. I really only do this for family and close friends who kinda care but live too far away to be present for everything and then I blog for my own personal record keeping. I'm not really and journaler, so this will have to suffice. Anyways, the big event recently was Seth's 7th birthday. I am shocked (internally) that I have a 7 year old. I have not processed this information yet. I imagine I will feel this way every time my children hit milestones in the future that will remind me of the hour glass of time that is slipping away. Mothers have always told me since my children were born, "cherish these moments, they grow up so fast." I must have assumed that as long as I cherished the moments and followed their instructions, that somehow that would make the passing of time more bearable or would protect me from regrets about my children growing up. It turns out I assumed incorrectly. I have savored nearly every cuddle and sloppy kiss my kiddos have lovingly bestowed on me. I have tried to burn into my memory the scent of their freshly-bathed heads and the feel of their chubby, soft bodies as they melt sleepily into my chest during lullabies and prayers at night. But cherish as I might, the time goes too fast and they are growing so quickly that my heart and mind cannot keep up. (Now don't get me wrong, I may have lacked some appreciation for the moments when they were fighting, screaming, whining, and peeing somewhere inconvenient. That crap still stresses me out.) But my point is more about the fact that Seth has turned 7, and I am devastated... and also thrilled about the kind, loving, gentle, and hilarious boy he has become. So, we had a little birthday party for him this past weekend and I think he loved it. It was a pretty stressful weekend, to be honest, to have a birthday because Easter was the very next day and we had some personal family stresses we were still managing. But Seth and my mom (Nina) had meticulously planned his birthday party and the party had to go on. So, here is what they came up with.

Insect Cake Walk game: Seth colored the pictures

Bug Hunt Game: We hid plastics insects all over and the kids had to see who could "catch" the most and fill their bug catching jars.

Chocolate ice cream birthday dirt: Yep, chocolate ice cream covered in crashed oreos and gummy worms. We served it in smaller plastic pots from the dollar store.

Worms in our drinks!

Gummy worms frozen in ice cubes. Seth was SOOO excited about this one!

Caterpillar balloon pop (as prize for the insect walk game), used Sixlets candy as caterpillars.

Centipede mini corn dogs (with chow mein noodles for legs and antennas) and Boursin cheese lady bugs (with chopped up black olives for dots), and leaves (aka salad as a side dish).

Buggy cupcakes: I think my mom got some of these ideas on Pinterest, but they were super easy to do. Raisinets make the ants, chocolate covered almonds and raisinets make the spiders, Sixlets make the centipedes, and chocolate covered pretzels make the butterflies (with some M&M accessories)

Photo Card

O Mod Tannenbaum Holiday

Create photo holiday cards this Christmas season.

View the entire collection of cards.

Julie 30 Birthday

Click here to view these pictures larger

playing catch up

I feel like all I do is catch up on things that I have gotten behind on: laundry, cleaning the house, dishes, picture uploads, books, and the list can go on and on and definitely can include my blog. I pretty much fell of the blogosphere for all of the summer. I guess we were just too busy having fun and enjoying the beautiful sunshine to spend time at the computer blogging. So, now I will do a quick update. We finished out the school year in June and immediately got busy doing more interesting things. For starters, I turned 30 in June. That is not the exciting part. The exciting part was the surprise birthday party my fantastic husband threw for me. He held an amazing surprise party with our friends and family in MI. AND he invited my two best friends to come into town and join me and my other bestie for a GLEEful 2 days of pedicures, shopping, dinners out, slumber parties, and (wait for it) the gLee Live concert that happened to be touring in Detroit at the same time! Yes, I know, Josh is the BEST! We immediately followed the birthday celebrations with a trip to Kings Island in Ohio with the kids and my parents. The kids all enjoyed some summer camps. And we spent a fantastic Fourth of July weekend with our good friends, the Ross family, at my parents' house in Ohio. This has become somewhat of a tradition I guess as long as we are all available and I must say, it is a wonderful tradition. The kids have a blast with their best friends swimming, fishing, boating, hot tubbing, and the adults do the same! =) The rest of our summer has pretty much just been hanging out. We've crammed in a few interviews for jobs around the country as Josh is beginning the process of job hunting. We are praying that God shows us clearly the right job for Josh in the right community for our family. We got lucky and were able to coordinate a Pennsylvania interview with a visit to the Newman cousins in NY and had a fabulous Labor Day weekend with our 7 kids together. We also got to visit with our Tulsa family during the Tulsa interview, which was awesome. We have one more interview scheduled in TN and are still keeping our eyes open for other interesting opportunities. Josh has had a busy summer and will have a busy final residency year because he is now the residency program's administrative chief. So he is crazy busy most of the time and has also been doing a lot of traveling for conferences and stuff. He'll be heading to South Africa in February for a medical training outreach for 3 weeks that he is very excited about. Me? Not so much. Any visitors would be welcome during that time! =) Seth started school last week (first grade) and is loving it so far. We are praying for a better year for him academically and that he really just has a great experience and makes some big leaps forward academically. He has been doing physical and occupational therapy, which has been great. He is currently trying an audio therapy program that we're hoping will help with his attention issues and visual motor development. We're doing gymnastics for the Seth and Lilah and will be starting swimming soon. I am just hanging on by the seat of my pants as our schedule gets busier and we are fully entering the "school aged kids" stage of life. Lilah is doing a homeschool pre-K program with me and we're enjoying the extra girl time together. Lilah just turned 5 last week and had her first big girl slumber party with her friend, Katie. They had a princess dress-up slumber party and fulfilled all slumber party standards by playing, doing make-up and hair, staying up giggling until midnight, and watching girly movies with donuts for breakfast. It was a blast! Isaac is just as active as always. He loves sitting with me and Lilah and "doing school", when he's not busy being Superman, that is. We are starting the potty training stuff with Isaac. I'll let you know how that goes... gifts of chocolate and wine might be appreciated! lol =) I think that is the update for now. As the weather gets cooler, maybe I will take more time to sit down and type something more interesting than this random update. For now, I will leave you with this:

Psalm 19: 1-4

1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard.[a] 4 Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.

Ten Years... and counting.

We took this picture last year at the Henry Ford Museum after we moved to Detroit. We have a non-digital picture and me and Josh in this exact same spot, minus 3 kids, on our honeymoon ten years ago.

In light of the fact that I regularly write about all sorts of things ranging from a trip to the zoo to funny things the kids say, I feel I would be remiss if I did not take today to post a blog about my incredible husband. You see, today is our ten year wedding anniversary. And while I could write something that I love about Josh on any given day and mean it wholeheartedly, I find myself in a place of reflection on this mile stone day. Josh and I got married, quite irresponsibly if I do say so myself, at the not even slightly grown up age of 19. We met during my senior year of high school and became friends. We later landed together at Oral Roberts University and made our "special friendship" official. ORU had midnight curfews and after several months of having to pry ourselves away from each other to meet curfew in the dorms, we decided to get married and forget the whole business of ever being apart. In hindsight, I am shocked that more people didn't question us or tell us we were insane for getting married so young. As Josh often says, the real credit goes to my parents. Rather than throw him out of the house and tell him to come back in 3 years, they actually granted blessings when the sweating, nervous, teenager of a boy had the gaul to sit down in their living room and ask permission to marry their daughter just one year out of high school. But, my parents simply said, "when you know, you know" and supported us in our journey towards marriage. Josh's parents also gave us their blessing and did their best, along with my parents, to let the kids go. We got married the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college. We finished school, held down jobs, went to medical school, and then to residency, and now we can't believe it's already been ten years. Those years have held their fare share of stresses and challenges and they have been joyful and glorious at the same time. Josh and I got away this week to Washington DC without the kids to celebrate our anniversary and for Josh to attend a medical conference. It has been so relaxing. And as I sit here typing, with my husband sleeping next to me, I can't help but marvel at how time has gone by so quickly. Ten years and 3 kids later, we still can't bear to be apart for long. So in honor of our ten years together, I am going to make my top ten list of all the reasons I still adore my Josh.

1. Josh tries his best to give me everything I want, because he loves me. This is not necessary for me, but I love that he tries because it shows he cares about my happiness.

2. Josh is the most involved, passionate, and caring father. And THAT is sexy (am I right ladies?).

3. Even though he is crazy busy, Josh still often takes out the trash, loads the dishwasher, bathes the kids, walks the dog, and mops the floor just to give me a break.

4. He's always willing to watch the kids so that I can get out of the house if he is home. (This is HUGE for my sanity)

5. Josh always puts his family first, even if it means his career suffers. And after all this training in medicine, still makes it clear that he will walk away from it tomorrow if it is hurting our family. (I would never let him do that, but it's powerful to know where his priorities are)

6. Every morning that he is home, Josh always makes coffee and brings it to me because he knows how much I need it and don't usually have time to make it while getting everybody ready for the day. I really need it. Really.

7. We can still laugh together, make fun of the same things, be sarcastic and "get" each other.

8. He tells me daily, multiple times a day how much he loves me and still thinks I'm the woman of his dreams. (This is nice to hear when you're rounding on 30)

9. He comes home and wrestles with his kids the minute he walks in the door, before he does anything else for the night.

10. Josh's Love is patient and kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Josh's love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

(based on 1 Corinthians 13)

Happy ten years together, Josh. I love you more now than I ever have and I pray for 60 more years after this!