Keeping the Trust Strong in your Relationship

Trust.

It's just a little word.

But, it means so much.

I'm sure it means something different to everyone, as well.

Trust is elusive.

If you lose trust, how do you regain it?

So, we can all agree that trust is vital, right?

What about the relationship between a woman and her husband? It's VERY important to have trust, wouldn't you say?

Every woman wants her husband to trust her, to rely upon her as faithful and true. However, that kind of trust doesn't come easy.

Here are a few ideas on how a woman can become trusted by the one who is her closest companion.

1. She keeps her word. When she makes a promise, she fulfills it. Always. That way, her husband knows her word is good.

2. She is there when he needs her. When her husband is hurting, she is ready to listen as long as it takes and she is ready to comfort him. When he's in trouble, she defends him. She is his ally.

3. She can be counted on. She would never brush him off.

Do your best to keep the trust strong in your relationship. Then you'll enjoy one of God's greatest blessings on earth - a great marital relationship.

"Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will have no lack of gain." Proverbs 31:10-11

Resource: 100 Favorite Bible Verses for Women 

Image credit: eastnine / 123RF Stock Photo

Being Still Amid a Busy Life

A woman has a very busy life. There are kids, family, husbands, bosses, friends, pets, finances, homes and more that take up her time.

Studies show that not only is the average woman busy from the time she gets up to the tie she goes to bed, but she also is reducing her sleep time because she has too much to do.

Does this sound like you?

You must learn to slow down. It takes self-determination and control. But it can happen.

Being busy all the time not only affects a woman's physical life, but their spiritual life as well. I know. It's really hard to slow down for anything, even for God.

God can help put your life in perspective. To do so, you must be still and know God. When you take time to be with God, you can build a better relationship with Him. When you focus on God, you can remember how vast He is. God knows everything. Always remember that.

God is everywhere. He's the focus of the universe. Knowing all of this really puts your life into perspective, don't you think?

When you are still, you are refreshed spiritually. You gain a new sense of how important you are to God.

Just think about it.

Be still. Listen for God's voice. He loves you. God whispers his love, support and reassurance to you.

Can you do it? Can you be still enough to hear God's voice?

Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth! -- Psalm 46:10

Birthday Tribute to my Husband

I want to use this forum to send birthday wishes to my husband, Greg. He's been my partner for over fifteen years. We were together two years before we married, giving us nearly eighteen years together so far.

Eighteen wonderful years. I wish for all your birthday wishes to come true and for you to enjoy every one. I love you so much. You are my rock. My partner. My love. My life.

Without you in my life, I would be truly lost. You are my safest port in any storm.

Married couples have their ups and downs throughout their married life. We have the added drama of my Bipolar Disorder. You are always there for me, no matter if I'm suffering from depression or mania. You always know exactly what to say or do to help me. You are truly my perfect companion. You know me better than I know myself at times.

I depend on you. I lean on you. I need you to take care of me. Without you, I would have succumbed to madness long ago. You are a steady influence over me.

I know I can go to you for comfort, safety, protection, and sanity. You always know exactly what to say to bring me out of a foul mood or comfort me when I'm depressed.

You keep me walking the right path and help me when I lose my way. You are the candle in my dreariest darkness.

I am truly, madly, and deeply in love with you.

We've grown close, you and I. Closer than I could ever imagine two people could be, married or not. You know me so well. You know my moods even before I recognize them myself. You protect me, even from me, which is why I love you so much.

If it's in your power, you give me whatever my heart desires. I adore you for that. And, all I want to do for the rest of my life is to make you happy.

You are the perfect compliment to me. My other half. My better half.

You love my children. You love our grandchildren. And, they love you. Life is about balance, and you ensure our life is balanced with fun and seriousness. When I'm sad, you balance me with your happiness.

You are my Love. My Best Friend. My Life.

I am always safe with you, my protector.  You are my hero. I am your biggest fan.

Happy Birthday, my dearest love. I want to grow old with you. My favorite place in all the world is next to you.

Always and Forever Yours,

Five Minute Friday - Beloved

It's time for the "Five Minute Friday" blogging post. The inspiration comes from Lisa Jo Baker. 

What you do is set your timer for five minutes and write whatever you want according to the prompt Lisa places on her blog every Friday. Then you go back, link your blog and give support to those who posted before you. And, we connect on Twitter with #FiveMinuteFriday.

Ready.

Set.

Go.

"Beloved"

He's been in my life for nearly eighteen years. We've been married for over fifteen. He's my love. My beloved. My truly other half. My husband. He loves me so much it scares me sometimes the depth of his love. There are days when I feel I don't deserve his love. There are days when I can only subsist on his love. He's been with me and supported me through so many rough times. Through the various hospitalizations for Bipolar Disorder. Through all the treatments that worked and didn't work. Through my mania episodes and depression episodes. He's been my constant. My rock. My love. I'm not sure if I can ever describe to him or explain to him how much he means to me. Not to the depth of my emotions. There's just too much there that can't be explained. I adore him. I need him. I can't exist without him. Life surely wouldn't be worth living without him. 

Stop.

Getting to Know You Blog Hop

Hello, and welcome to the Getting to Know You Blog Hop. We have an eclectic choice of bloggers for this hop and it will run from January 29, 2013 to February 1,2013. I’d like to thank all of the participants for joining and committing this time to their blog.

Let’s get started on getting to know me.

Where are you from?

I was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in a very small town and grew up on Lake Michigan. I stayed in Michigan until I graduated high school and left for warmer parts of the country via the United States Marine Corps.

When and why did you begin writing?

I’ve always been a writer at heart and started reading and writing at age four. I love the written word. I chose a career as a Technical Writer creating computer user manuals and segued into writing novels after I had a life changing experience. A near-death experience that brought into focus what was most important in my life, and that was my goal to become and author.

What books have most influenced your life?

Stephen King’s books resonate with me because I feel like he’s my “unofficial” mentor. I use his books and his style to guide how I write. He can use a few words to trigger an entire world inside a reader’s mind. That’s my goal as well.

What is your favorite book from childhood?

The book “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S.Lewis comes to mind, as well as “Anne of Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I also like the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner.

Are the names of the characters in your novels important?

I try to find character names that fit the character description and attitude of the character I develop. I try to make sure all the character names in my books are unique and I don’t overlap or use similar names to confuse my readers.

What’s your favorite fruit?

No question about it. Blueberries. I LOVE them. As a child, I worked the summers as a picker for a Blueberry farm. We would get a dollar a bucket. Best times of my life.

Do you ever wish you had an entirely uncreative job?

Never. Writing is whom I am, how I live, what I breathe. I could not exist if I were not a writer. I tried the corporate route before. It didn’t agree with me.

What are the most important attributes to remaining sane as a writer?

My husband. He helps me stay grounded. He’s as close to me as anyone could be and he know all my moods. I also lay all my troubles on God. He’s my rock.

What was the greatest thing you learned at school?

I learned how to survive by going into the fantasy realm of my mind and make up stories. I was bullied a lot in school and I learned how to switch it off and just go into my mind and be one with my stories.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Stephen King. I’ve even written a blog titled, “EverythingI know about writing I learned by reading Stephen King”. It’s true. And, I believe that every writer worth his salt should have a copy of ON WRITING by Stephen King on their desk or bookshelf.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

I’ve recently had two books released. OUTFOR JUSTICE and GOOD INTENTIONS.

OUT FOR JUSTICE: Rookie homicide Detective Karen Sykes is out to prove she is good at her job, finding justice for a darkness in her past through law enforcement. She gets her first chance to shine with a case that hits a little too close to home. Like her younger sister, a four-year-old boy, has been brutally murdered. The case pairs her with Mike Connelly, an attractive crime scene technician, and sparks fly between the two of them. Mike resists the attraction and only adds more emotional conflict to the case.

When her partner becomes the latest victim and ends up in the hospital near death, Karen sets out to find the murderer before he hurts anyone else. Only the case gets trickier when the murder suspect ends up dead, leaving new clues to the real killer. Finding comfort in Mike's support, their relationship heats up, but so does the investigation. The killer has a plan. One that involves a Cat and Mouse game of hide and seek inside the hospital, where her partner struggles for his life. Karen discovers it takes more than catching a killer to make the pain of her past go away. It also takes opening her heart and learning to trust in others.

GOOD INTENTIONS: The tragic story of one woman’s efforts to help a teenage mother. Megan, fourteen and pregnant, needed a mom. Tracy, thirty-nine and already raising a large family, gave her a home. Neither was ready for what happened next.

Tracy Reynolds’ life is not her own. She works the nightshift at the hospital and has three boys, two girls and a husband who works the opposite shift along with a menagerie of rescued pets. Somehow, she and her husband, Tim, have made it work with love, faith, and impeccable ethics.

Adding fourteen-year-old Megan and her newborn son to the mix was supposed to be uncomplicated. The adoption agency made it sound so easy. They painted Megan as a good child who had a rough life. She needed love and understanding and the stability of a respectable home and family. Tracy and Tim fit the bill and were fast tracked through the system and before they knew it trouble landed on their doorstep. Megan.

Megan rejected their family values and resisted from every direction when it came to learning how to live within their family dynamics and taking care of her son. She missed her friends and the people she knew when she worked as a prostitute. Despite court orders and her probation officer’s warnings, Megan secretly reconnected with her old friends and lover. 

The Reynolds’ family spun out of control. Not one would be untouched by Hurricane Megan’s path of destruction.

One link in a strong chain of family dynamics can crumble the entire household.

Deceptions. Infidelity. Drugs. Child abuse. Cancer. Sexual abuse. Home invasion. The Reynolds’ went through it all. Would their family ever be the same?

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Write. Write something every day. And, Read. Read every day.Always be willing to learn and grow as a writer. If you’re serious about becoming an author, be serious. Look like an author in the virtual world. Have a website, a blog, a Facebook author page. Join LinkedIn, Twitter, and any other social network community that can benefit you. I recommend Triberr. There you can specialize which communities,“tribes”, you want to join that will be beneficial to you and them.

Thanks,

Thank you for reading a bit about me and I’d like to introduce you to other authors along this hop. Their links are below:

http://tenthchild.com/wordpress/

http://sfemespiral.com/ego/

http://candacegauger.wordpress.com/

http://traceeford.wordpress.com/

http://pacificrimpressblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.notanotherbookreview.blogspot.com/

http://ninjananny.wordpress.com/

http://www.charleneraddon.blogspot.com/

http://simplifyandsave.weebly.com/blog-save--simplify.html

http://candysmonsters.com/

Two Blogs for the Price of One

Today I'm at Pump Up Your Online Book Promotion chatting with Dorothy Thompson. She's the one who started all this Virtual Book Tour stuff and she's the lady to go to if you're interested in a book tour for yourself.

Tomorrow I'm at the fabulous Romantic Fanatic. Guess what she made me reveal about my husband!??! I can't tell you here, you have to go to her site and see for yourself.

Shh, I haven't even told my hubby yet what's on the blog. I wonder if he'll be embarrassed?

It's all coming together

I gotta hand it to my husband. He's surpassed every milestone he set for himself. Well, okay... no really, he did. I'm quite proud of him. He finished the stucco. You can see the design of the stucco in the picture. We even stamped some sea shells into the stucco to give it more of a beach feel.

At this moment, he's outside priming the wall preparing it for painting. He even got one of those spray paint thingies that you connect to the can o'paint and it sprays evenly in a horizontal direction.

Ah, the reason I know it sprays horizontally, is because hubby tried to spray the top of the wall by holding the spray thingie vertically. Wouldn't work.

So, it was my job to find a paint brush (any brush will do, just find one) so that hubby could paint the top of the wall.

Of course, I wanted the wall to match the color on the house. Funny, no argument from hubby. We agreed on something. Yay! Now, the only container left with paint from when the house was painted more than ten years ago was in a large bucket with its label nearly worn off. Good thing Home Depot can read their own labels. They had the right color and mixed up what we needed. Couldn't get easier than that.

We're so close to finishing I can't wait. I've already called the screening company and they're putting us on their schedule for next week. Hopefully. If not, the week after that. Then when the screening is done, we get new patio furniture and new French doors to replace the sliding glass doors. It's going to be so awesome.

I can't wait to take my laptop out there and work. Bug free. Leaf free. In cool comfort with my bird and my dog playing while I work.

Ah, I'm almost there...

We finally have Pictures!

For those of you who have been following along with our home remodeling project. Here's a picture of its current status.

The wall is capped and dear hubby will start the stucco this weekend.

I asked him, "Do you know how to stucco?"

"No. But, I'm reading a book about it."

Do you see where we're going from here? But, I have to admit, he didn't do badly with the wall at all. It's straight (mostly), level (sort of), and meets his specifications. There's even the required 40 inch gaps for the screen doors.

Speaking of screens, we finally agreed on who will do the work. Now we have to determine the "when". You see, the screeners can't start until the wall is finished. That means stucco. And paint. Now, who is going to paint?

Don't look at me!

Home Remodel Part Two

I helped my husband build a two foot concrete wall around our patio this weekend, leaving two 40 inch spaces for new screen doors. We're getting our patio screened in. But, dear hubby wants to do the concrete work himself. Like I mentioned in my previous post, he doesn't know what he's doing.

But he said he'll learn as he goes.

Uh huh. Well, he did. Sort of.

I can honestly say, it's the best wall I've ever seen built. Then again, I've never seen a wall built before.

To be truthful, it turned out a whole heck of a lot better than my wild imagination had doomed. The wall is straight. Pretty much. It's level. I'm taking hubby's word for that. And, it's the same height all the way around. That was the last thing I asked him to check before he called it done.

I did help too. Although, he wouldn't let me carry concrete blocks. He wouldn't let me slop mortar. But, I was in charge of the cement mixer we rented from Home Depot.

Did you know Home Depot rents portable cement mixers? I didn't.

I do now.

I never mixed a bag of mortar in my life, but I sure learned out this weekend. Just add the water a little at a time. Best tip I can give you.

Hubby's woes started early. He almost called it quits after laying the first few blocks. Nothing cooperated. The straight line. The block. The mortar. The lifting. Those darn blocks weigh something like 40 pounds each. I guess that's why hubby didn't want me lifting them. And the fact that if I dropped one it would crack our pool deck.

Oh, did I mention that this wall borders our pool's cool deck? And, guess who was in charge of making sure all the mortar didn't stick to the cool deck? Me, of course. Hubby didn't make it easy either. He slopped a lot of mortar around, not caring much where it went. Cool deck. Patio tile. Wherever.

I put myself in charge of cleaning tools after we were through for the day. Trowel. Shovel. Levels. Little pointy thing. The little pointy thing helped make sure the distance between the blocks remained constant. Don't know what it's called. Just called it the little pointy thing. And, it didn't work very well.

Or, I should say, hubby didn't use it very often. He said he could "eyeball" it and knew how far to put the blocks.

Uh huh.

That's why at the end we had to put in nearly an inch or so of mortar between blocks because we ended up with more space than blocks. But, who's pointing fingers? Not me. But, hey, we're done. The wall is up. No more concrete.

Ri-ight.

Our patio roof used to be held up by four by four cedar posts. Well, hubby cut those down and put up these post shorer things that hold the roof up. Yep. I learned what they were because I had to order them. Didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but I managed to order 4 of them.

Silly me, I thought we were going to replace those cedar posts with new four by four posts. Boy was I wrong. Hubby enlightened me today. "We're going to have to rent the cement mixer again," he tells me.

Guess why?

The posts are going to be replaced with concrete blocks. All the way up to the roof. Hmmm. The roof is higher than my hubby is tall. I can see ladders in the future, or would he stand on the new wall he created? Hmmm. Only time will tell.

But, I must admit. If this new screened in patio turns out like I'm imagining now, it could really be something. I'm getting excited about it.

Uh, maybe I should go back to thinking doom and gloom so I'm not disappointed?

The remodeling continues.

A Lesson in Home Improvement

My husband and I are making changes to our house. We bought it in an "At is" state, and have slowly made changes over the years. This year, we're screening in the back patio. Our goal is to have it done before Hurrican Season.

I wanted to hire a contractor and pay to have them do all the work. My husband said, "No, don't do that. I can do it for a lot less."

Now, has my husband ever screened in a patio before?

No.

But, he said he'll learn as he goes.

Uh, huh.

His plan is to build a block wall about 2 - 3 feet high all around the patio with concrete.

Has he ever done masonry work before?

Nope.

But, he said he'll learn as he goes.

Uh, huh.

Do you think we'll be done by Hurricane Season?

Well, we have two months. That should give hubby plenty of time to get the block wall finished so I can bring in professional screeners to finish it up.

You didn't think I was going to let him do everything by himself, did you? We compromised. And, he agreed, when it comes to screens, let the pros handle it.

After the screening is finished it get to replace my sliding glass doors with French double doors. One double pane of glass, with the blinds in between the glass. I can't wait.

Who's going to put in the double doors? We haven't agreed on that yet.

But, we will. I'll keep you informed.