this past weekend, our elders board very generously sent Brian and I to Family Life’s Weekend to Remember marriage conference. Family Life is Campus Crusade’s outreach to couples and families. we had heard very good things, rave reviews actually, from several other couples who have attended in the past few years. with our 10 year anniversary coming up this summer, it was a good time for a little marriage checkup!

my parents came down to take care of Josh for us, and we headed off to Saratoga Springs, which is about 40 minutes north of us. Saratoga is a beautiful town, probably most well known for horse racing and spas. the conference was at the Hilton, which is where we also stayed – it was decorated really nicely for Christmas and felt very comfortable and even cozy.

it would take a lot more than one blog post to tell you what we experienced over the entire weekend. i think it’s safe to say we were both pretty tired and a little stressed, and the opportunity to get away sans 4 year old and be focusing on the two of us was a welcome thing. at registration we were given a special little gift bag that the organizers had made for all of the pastors who were attending the conference – it was filled with snacks, fruit, chocolate and two bottles of water. everyone received name tags and an individual manual/notebook to follow along and write stuff down in during the sessions. our room was pretty comfy, and looked out over Broadway, sort of the main drag in Saratoga. at night we could see twinkling white lights, and it was really pretty.

there was a LOT of information in each session – solid biblical principles to apply to our marriage, some of which were review (which never hurts!), and some ideas were new. for example, the idea of responding to emotional communication with emotion, and cognitive communication with cognitive communication… sounds simple, but i think it’s something that a lot of people miss and it can make a big difference. i was struck by how applicable this is for us with Josh as well – valuing his thoughts and emotions as he expresses them, making sure that he knows he is heard and understood.

there was a planned date night on Saturday night – and since it was restaurant week in Saratoga we were able to go to a fairly pricey place and enjoy a 3 course meal for $18.19 each! it was nice to walk along and see the cute Christmas windows that many of the stores have, and then head back to a nice warm hotel room!

there were many memorable moments over the course of the weekend – hearing one couple talk about how the wife had actually come alone on Friday, and then brought the husband back on Saturday – they were on the verge of separating and as of Saturday night had decided to not go down that road, but rather to give things another chance. the entire room stood and applauded, and there were very few dry eyes after that. on Sunday morning we had an opportunity to renew our vows, which was really so awesome.

i would whole-heartedly recommend this conference to anyone – regardless of how long you’ve been married or what the state of your relationship is… it’s worthwhile to invest. we fix our houses, maintain our cars, weed our gardens… but sometimes we really fail to do the same type of thing for our relationships with our spouses. It’s not an inexpensive weekend… but really, come on, it’s worth it.

today i decided it was time for Josh and I to make some cinnamon Christmas tree ornaments. i found a lovely recipe in a Canadian Living book – The Canadian Living Christmas Book, published in 1993. I have no idea if it is still in print or not.

The recipe is simple: 1/2 cup of unsweetened store-bought applesauce and 1/2 cup of ground cinnamon. that is all! combine the ingredients in a sturdy plastic ziploc-type of bag, kneading it together until it’s well-combined. i found myself adding cinnamon after i had turned it out of the bag, mainly because it just seemed a bit too goopy – it should be the consistency of cookie dough.

Then you want to roll it out to about a 1/8 inch thickness, and cut out shapes with Christmas cookie cutters. Use a straw to make a hold for hanging the decorations, and then place them to dry on a paper-towel lined cookie sheet, nice and flat. turn them several times while drying – they will take between 24 and 48 hrs to dry completely. Then you can decorate them as you wish – royal icing, glitter glue… go nuts!

Josh was quite enthralled with this idea. I told him we were going to give some to his Sunday School teachers but he did not like that idea and wants to keep all of the decorations for himself

Honestly, since we started using Google Calendar, I can’t say enough good things about it. You can manage and share multiple calendars and use it for all sorts of good things. Including… menu planning. Yes, that’s right!

Recently, in an effort to become more organized around here (ha!), i came across a lovely blog as the result of a Google search. (i love Google, i’ll just say that now and get it out of the way) Simple Mom is the brainchild of Tsh, who i have never met although some day i would absolutely LOVE to meet someone as with it as she seems! Her blog is just heaven for me – hacks for mommy life, holiday ideas, stuff to do with kids, greener living… the list could go on. I’ve been reading it now for the past couple of weeks, discovering all sorts of goodness like new pages for my home notebook.

And then, i found this article about menu planning using Google Calendar. i can’t believe i didn’t think of that! what a fantastic idea!! i’ve been slowly getting my own menu plan up and running and i really have to say i think it’s just a wonderful thing, especially if you’re an internet junkie somebody who is already using Google Calendar for other stuff, like we are.