An Honest Letter: Lessons in Laundry

Dear friends,

I am emerging from the caves of winter:

It has been two months since I last blogged.  How in the world has it been two months since the end of January?  Somewhere in between then and now my online classes started, Zach and I launched our business, and I learned a lot about being married.  Last week I wrapped up two of my classes, so I'm back to having some extra moments for reflection on questions like:

Why doesn't anyone receive a BA, MA, or PhD for four, eight, or sixteen+ years of learning in marriage?  I'm asking honestly.

Why is spring so late in coming?!  I am still asking honestly. (I am also sounding like Toad from: Frog and Toad.)

I've also been pondering some of the lessons I've recently learned, such as:

1)  Always check the load of laundry very carefully before you wash it.

I have washed some of the strangest things in the past two months.  For example, last month I washed a banana.  In fact, I washed the same banana three times.

Here's what happened.  One Monday morning, Zach told me that his backpack was growing mold.  He often carries a protein shake in his backpack when he goes to school, so I figured that at some point the protein must have leaked.  I asked him to empty his backpack so I could wash it.  He did.  I double checked to make sure he hadn't missed anything.  He hadn't.  I washed the backpack.  It smelled funny.  I washed it again.  It still smelled funny.  Puzzled, I washed it again with extra detergent, extra hot water, and then I even put it through the extra-hot dryer cycle.  I felt proud for having conquered the mold.

But when the backpack was dry, I noticed that one of the pockets was strangely lumpy.  This confused me, as the pocket appeared to be empty.  This is when I learned about the secret pocket.  Somehow, both Zach and I had failed to discover the secret pocket...except, we must have discovered it at some point because when I opened the secret pocket I found the remains of a thrice washed banana.

Are you disappointed that I didn't take pictures?  Let it suffice for me to tell you that a banana that has been washed three times with extra detergent and extra hot water and then dried in an extra hot cycle is a very sad looking banana.  I definitely fared better in this lesson then the banana did.

Anyways, I learned from the experience and have graduated with a 3.0 in laundry learning. (The professor generously curved my grade in return for the laugh.)

In fact, this is one of the greatest lessons I've learned so far:

a little laughter goes a long way for growing love.

It's easy to settle into the normalcy of living...the school, the meals, the laundry, the dirty floors, the growing business...

The workload piles, and suddenly one has lost the art of living - the joy of surprises - the fun of marriage.

So this is where my question about BA's, MA's, and PhD's in marriage comes full circle: marriage must be celebrated!  In fact, this principle reaches beyond marriage into the realm of all relationships.

Don't miss the gifts loving and being loved simply because they have once been given and received.

Take time to delight in the daily gift of loving and being loved.  

Want to join me in my new personal challenge for the month of April?  Here's what it is:

Do something daily that is solely for the purpose of bringing a smile to someone's face.

I dare you to do it!  And if you do, I'd love to hear about your adventures!

Mucho love,

Natalia Rosa

(Since every post is better with a few pictures, here's my "P.S." - a few smiles from the past few months:

Heartbeats of home

home | hōm |

            1 "the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household."

home | hōm |

            2 "wherever I am with you."

In the past few weeks I have packed up twenty years of my life and shipped it across a thousand miles.  I have been married.  I have become a wife.  I have had a beautiful honeymoon and have road-tripped through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.  

When I first started writing this post two weeks ago, I was sitting on a stool in the middle of stacks of boxes, half-assembled furniture, and a stack of wedding gifts.  Sometime that day, someone asked me if we were "settled in" yet.  Zach and I looked at each other and laughed.  Because the apartment looked something like this...

Please note: I'm cringing as I upload these pictures.  If you are not going to read the rest of this post, please, I beg of you, at least scroll down and look at the clean apartment pictures! ;)

The unpacking process was actually quite comical.  Did you know that when you're unpacking, things get worse before they get better?  There may or may not have been a few times when Zach and I suddenly dropped everything we were doing, let out a claustrophobic cry for help, blazed a trail through the forrest of cardboard, and ran outside to breathe some fresh air.

Finally, we began to catch glimpses of the rewards of our labor!  And the apartment began to look like this:

Slowly, but surely, it is beginning to come together.  It is beginning to become:

Home

But it is not just, "the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household."

In fact, it is not even the place where we will live permanently.  Moreover, it is still a bit bare and "in-progress"...but that's okay, because "home" is far more than a place.  It is: 

Wherever I am with you.

And that, is a beautiful place to be!