Marriage Fail

I went to a friend's wedding on the weekend, and was reminded again, how wonderful and beautiful marriage can be, and how a wedding is a time for celebrating love and the unity of two people.  

It is also a time to remember how serious the commitment is that you are making - to commit to spending the rest of your life with someone else is a BIG deal. Bigger than big. 

I made that commitment three and a half years ago, and haven't looked back once.

This morning however - "marriage" made me exceptionally angry.

Kim Kardashian got married seventy two days ago. 

Today, she filed for divorce.

I am extremely sick and tired of celebrities mocking marriage.  Stop getting married. Stop spending millions of dollars on a wedding.  Stop throwing your "love" in everyone's face, only to have the embarrassment of ending it less than three months later.

Why celebrities (or anyone who gets divorced over a short period of time) get married is mind boggling to me.  We live in a time where marriage is no longer necessary, no longer law, no longer an absolute means to an end.  It's something I believe in strongly, but you don't have to get married anymore.  So why do it? 

I really think people don't realize that after the glitz of a wedding production (which for Kim Kardashian, it absolutely was. A 2 hour long, 10 million dollar spectacle on E!, actually), there is an actual marriage required.

After the white dress comes off, the DJ's been paid, and the presents have been opened, you really have to spend your life with someone. Shocking, I know.

"There is such pleasure in long term marriage.  Remember, sustaining a pleasurable, long term marriage takes effort, deliberateness, and an intention to learn about one another. In other words, marriage is for grown ups." - Cookie Roberts, From This Day Forward

Life Before LOL

I was recently going through some old "notes" from high school.

Remember notes? Little scraps of paper passed between friends documenting everything important and wonderful in your little 16 year old lives. 

 (And you thought I was talking about class notes - for shame! I burned those every year!)

 Do high school students still pass notes? Or is it all texting all the time? That makes me sad to think that notes might be a thing of the past! They were definitely a staple during all my elementary and high school years.

Anyways, what I noticed upon reading these notes, that my friends and I, when something was funny in the note, used words like "giggle", "tee hee hee", or "HAHAHA!"

Even "smile" was used to relay how we were feeling.

 Real adjectives to show how we thought something was funny.  What life was like before the "change everything about the way we relay humour" LOL.

LOL has become the three letters used at the end of almost every sentence when conversing with friends. And it's a lie! How often are you actually "lol-ing" when you write that you are? NEVER! 

 

In fact, I would argue that if you ACTUALLY laugh out loud, you now have to literally write that  you actually laughed out loud, so that the person knows what they said was actually funny. (actually, actually, actually.)

Bring back adjectives! Bring back notes!

Cheers to life before LOL.

Home Libraries are Heaven

Books make me so happy.

I love love love to read. All kinds of books, all kinds of genres.

I read every night, and if I have a day to myself, it more often than not begins with good intentions of going out, doing things, but usually ends up with me, my couch, a cup of tea, and a good book.

My in-laws recently put in a floor to ceiling book case in their study/office, and it looks amazing.

 This is what it looks like - this isn't their room, but the same bookcase.

I do not have the necessary "cha ching" to have a library in my home just yet, but it is definitely a dream of mine. 

Some other amazing home library spaces.

 I love the staircase/book/leather couch combo.

 Crisp white decor and books make a great combination.

 A little excessive perhaps - but how else does a Beast get a Beauty?

 Lovely.

 Double lovely.

Sigh - I'm in love!

"Give me books, french wine, and fine weather..." - John Keats

Foster The People

What the... where did these guys come from?

I know they have the super popular "Pumped Up Kicks" that overtook the airwaves this summer, but they have other AMAZING stuff going on musically.

Like this song, which I literally can't stop listening to right now.

Foster The People - Houdini

Kill me, I love this so much.

 If you caught them on Saturday Night Live tonight, consider yourself lucky. These guys are the real deal.

"Raise up to your ability"  - Foster The People

Back to the Table

My husband and I recently had dinner at our dining room table, something we haven't done in quite some time. 

 I grew up in a family that had dinner every night at the dinner table.  It never even occurred to me that eating it on the couch in front of the TV was an option.  

Mostly because -  it wasn't.

My husband came from a like minded family as well.

Somehow though, over the course of our marriage, we have become a couple that eats in the living room, in front of the TV, on separate couches no less.

Not cool!!

So I set the table, lit a few candles, broke out the good plates.  And Chris and I had the most wonderful dinner! We talked, we giggled, we had a good time.

 look how much fun this couple is having!

Dinner at the table has become a lost art in the family unit, and something I think is absolutely one of the MOST important ways to stay connected.  My husband and I had a lengthy conversation about how important it will become when we have children of our own.  

 I imagine it will be just like this.

It's Thanksgiving weekend.  There are going to be a lot of meals - a lot of family time.  Be thankful as you sit around the family table, and try to do it more often. 

From a new Prime Maple Leaf TV commercial, on dinner time:

"Mothers, fathers, brothers, daughters
Gather round familiar quarters.
Tell us,
what happened,
this day.
Laugh some, share some,
Talk, and then some.

Fill your plates with love…
Time found, moments made."

watch the commercial here

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Eating, Happy Dinner table-ing!