THE PETERSENS

Over the course of our marriage, we have had to work on implementing date nights into our weekly schedules.  It has not been easy for a number of reasons…

1.) When we first got married, we just didn’t communicate very well.  I had expectations, Ben had expectations, we would both get discouraged and we would avoid dates altogether.

2.) Eight months into marriage, we found out we were expecting our first child.  I battled some nausea and a lot of fatigue, so date nights were just not on the forefront of our minds.

3.) Then we had Joshua Lee and when you have kids, it means that they either come with you on your date (which means you’re not REALLY on a date) or  you have to hunt down a babysitter AND be willing to trust your child in another person’s hands.  Needless to say, we had a few dates, but not a lot.

4.) Then we moved to North Carolina, where we essentially had to start our lives over.  New church, new friends, new restaurants, etc.  Once we made some friends, we went on a few more dates, but they were still few and far between.

SO, WHAT HAVE I LEARNED?  Date nights are a luxury.  Don’t take them for granted, but ALSO…aim to have them often.  Ideally once a week, but we shoot for twice a month.  Whenever we come home from a date, Ben and I are rejuvenated in our love for one another.  It is so, so good to have several hours to talk about what God is doing in our hearts and lives without any distractions.  It is FUN to laugh and flirt with each other and hold hands like in our early dating days.  It is wonderful to be reminded of the reasons why I married Ben in the first place.  What are you waiting for, you married folks?  Go on a date!  Make time for it…it’s worthwhile for your marriage.

Let me tell you about our most recent date.  Thanks to our sweet and generous friend, Kristin, we were able to check out a snazzy restaurant called Thaiphoon Bistro a couple weeks ago.

Wow, was the food amazing (and spicy)!  Not only that, but the ambience and the decor of the place was right up our alley.  We were truly spoiled that night.  Afterward, we swung by Cold Stone and shared a small ice cream.  It was absolutely wonderful!  What a blessing it was to spend one-on-one time with my dear husband.  My encouragement to you married couples out there…the dating doesn’t stop with marriage!

I am happy to say that our household is finally recovering from all the sickness we have been enduring for the past few weeks.  It has been hard, but the Lord has sustained us.

You will be hearing more from us now.  The absence of blog posts was due to my own coming down with the flu.  When I wasn’t resting or sleeping, I was still trying to keep up with taking care of my husband and kids and accomplishing a minimal amount of housework.  Hopefully you will be hearing more from me, but maybe not as much since I am trying to get caught up on everything else that fell by the wayside.

Thank you to those who were praying for us and loving on us by bringing us meals and just calling.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by people from our church who are so quick to serve.

Anyway, a few updates…

• February was a short month, so we were able to come in under our $175/month food budget.  I am hoping that this will the be first of many months we can do this!
• One of our new financial goals for this year was to aggressively pay off my student loans totaling $10,000.  We have been able to cut that in half!  Praise be to God who has blessed us with a hefty tax return and side-job opportunities for my hubby.  We’ve been able to throw that extra income toward our school debt.
• Our house is actually FOR REAL being built now, so we are looking to move into our first home in about 90 days.
• Ben has been juggling his many responsibilities well and even managed to get Google Analytics-certified amidst his crazy schedule.  Yay, husband!
• Homeschooling has been going well for Joshua Lee and I.  He is now able to read most of his board books out loud and is eager to tackle hard words like “extinguisher” and “xylophone.”  My oldest loves to read!
• Caleb is becoming more and more verbal.  A few new words he says are: “ight” for “light”, “moo” for “moon”, “nana” for “banana”, and  “di-pah” for “diaper”.  He is such a little ham and he loves to be funny.
• We have lots of visitors lined up who are flying in to visit with us starting in mid-March through the beginning of May.  The Mellings, my mom and my brother, my sister and then my dad…we love it!

That’s it for now.  Come back soon for more blog posts of my grocery shopping trips, meal plans, pictures of my coupon binder, etc.

These past few months have been full.  Full of life.  Full of events.  Full of fun.  Full of holidays.  Full of birthdays.  Full of baby showers.  And, unfortunately, full of SICKNESS.  My little family has been battling different viruses, colds, flus and childhood diseases every other week since a little before Thanksgiving!

I am not gonna lie…it has been really, really hard.  I have cried many times, wishing my mom was closer by so she could come help me with the kids or whip up a pot of her yummy Khmer chicken-rice soup.  I have struggled with loving my husband and kids well because my mind and body are so exhausted.  I have failed to be lovingly intentional with those in my community group.  My heart is tempted to be full of discontent.  My mouth overflows with grumbling.  And, my thoughts are full of pity for myself.  Everyday is a battle to believe in God and His promises. Once again, I believe the Lord is teaching me that TRUE JOY does not lie in my circumstances.  My TRUE JOY comes from Jesus Christ Himself and the affections which I have for my Savior.

This season of sickness (along with crazy busy-ness) always makes me long for heaven because there will be no sickness there.  Sound dramatic a little bit, huh?  Okay, maybe.  I know so many other people who have harder trials to walk through right now, but all the same, I do long for heaven.  My prayer right now is that I would endure this season well.  That I would be an example to my kiddos what it means to persevere in the big and small trials that the Lord gives.  And, how that perseverance gives way to character and character hope.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5

Here are some cute pictures of the kids while they were fighting croup this past week:

Caleb is truly pitiful when he’s sick.  He wants to be held all the time and he refuses to sleep or eat.  Those are pretty essential things to getting better, don’t you think?

Then there’s JL.  With the exception of perhaps more of an inclination to disobey, JL is still his happy, content, little self when sick.
What a serious blessing!

We were able to keep him from crying constantly for a little bit by bundling him up in a soft blanky and covering him with some favorite stuffed animals.  Poor little man.