I guest posted this weekend on Warren Baldwin’s blog The Family Fountain… here’s what I said…
When my 21-year-old husband and I found ourselves on the road back from our honeymoon and with $3.56 to our names, we weren’t concerned. We’d live on love. We had no problem knocking on my parent’s door and lugging our honeymoon suitcases back up the stairs into my old bedroom less than two weeks into our married lives. We didn’t need money or a house or new clothes. We loved each other fiercely. What else did we need? Click here to find out.

Last night while I was feeding Will, I picked up my Kindle and started reading a mushy-love-story of a novel–one of those where the hero and heroine love each other so much that they literally cannot survive being apart from each other–and instead of making me feel all romantic, it made me sad.

Sad because my husband and I haven’t spent more than 10 minutes alone together since the baby was born.

Sad because that must-spend-time together romance disappeared about 12 seconds after our firstborn was born.

Sad because there was a time when we were that hero and heroine back in the day when we were 21 and had no responsibilities aside from going to work and hanging out with each other.

So much has changed.

And I’m not sure how to get the old “us” back– but I know we have to somehow, someway.  Because the truth is that I can’t stand the thought of my kids growing up in a home where their example of marriage is what they’re seeing right now:  Two people who do love each other but never quite have time to make that love grow.  Two people who are so focused on just surviving that they never focus on each other. Two people who once had that mushy-love-story type of love, but lost it along the way.

Does anyone have any tips?!

So, I’m trying to talk my husband into going on a little mini-vacation next week. Not like an all-out airplane-flying, hotel-staying, spend-a-fortune trip to Disney World or anything like that, but a little road trip to the beach or to Dallas or Houston or something.

I know it’s a bit crazy.  I mean, we have a five-week-old.  And a three-year-old.  And an almost kindergartner.  And we’re all still recovering from, well, everything.  But the thing is, I feel like I’ve been stuck in the house forEVER.   And I truthfully kind of have…since last summer was spent at home, too, because I was pregnant and then lost the baby in late July.  And then I spent the entire school year sick and pregnant.  So this is the first time in a LONG time that I can really get away.  So I want to go.

So, questions for y’all:

1.  Am I nuts?  Should I just suck it up and stay home until my kids are a bit older

AND

2.  If we do go, what should we do?  Does anyone have any brilliant (and not too expensive) ideas for travel with a family of five including a nursing infant?

Let’s take a minute to travel back to 2000, when I was a young, 22-year-old bride. I can’t even show you a picture because they didn’t have digital photos back then…but I was young and naive and I thought I knew a lot about love. And relationships. And marriage. But it turns out that I was wrong.

Fast forward four years and my husband and I were really struggling. We didn’t get each other. We didn’t get marriage. I felt so alone and unloved. At that point, a friend of mine recommended the book Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerich. It was amazing. The gist of the book is that while women crave love in their relationships, men crave respect. I actually remember where I was sitting when I had this a-ha moment and realized that while I thought my actions were loving to my husband, the reality was that some of the things I was doing (read: nagging him about his job) were actually disrespectful. A-ha!

Anyway, Dr. Eggerich recently released a hardcover gift version of his book called Love & Respect for a Lifetime.. His work is so powerful—and his new book is no exception. Not only is it superhelpful—it has all of the concepts of his first book–but it’s also supercute and fancy with pictures and verses and quotes. I love it. And—mushy comment alert—I’m going to tie it on top of my hubby’s Valentine’s present to remind him about how far we’ve come. Cute, right?

And, since love (and respect) are in the air, I thought I’d give you the chance to win your own copy of Love & Respect for a Lifetime. Just comment below and tell me what you’re doing for Valentine’s Day and I’ll draw one commenter on Valentine’s Day to win a copy!

P.S. Come back next week (on Valentine’s Day) when I announce the winner to read what Dr. Eggerich has to say about keeping your marriage strong when you have young children… trust me, it’s worth the read!