Secret Diary

This is a page from Miss E's secret diary. Now before you all yell at me for posting this, I did ask her first if I could do it. It was too cute to pass up. For Christmas she got her first diary complete with lock and key. The last few days she has been writing in it diligently and this is the first page. For those you can't read kindergarten-ese this is what it says:

E
Age 6
I love you
I love fairies
I love princesses
I love Mommy
I love Daddy
I love Theo
I love Ginger (our dog)
I love Sammy (cat #1)
I love Reenie (cat #2)
I love eggs
I love pepperoni pizza
I love candy
I love me
I love flowers

So cute! I totally remember writing lists of all the things I liked at this age. I love that she wrote "I love me" on there. Self-esteem is something I have really been mindful of with her and that makes me so happy and pleased to read that.

Speaking of love, this morning I woke up to a water-filled, fresh coffee grinds-filled, ready to go coffee maker! This is what I called a "married I love you". Peter and I have been together and lived together since we were 19. We actually lived together before we started dating even (true story). We have been married for 8 years. That makes 16 years as a couple. That is a LONG time. A lifetime in fact, sometimes more like several. At this point we are beyond all the flowers, chocolates and uber-romantic dates. Those are nice and still appreciated but they really aren't realistic or practical and neither one of us needs big shows of affection from the other to demonstrate their commitment.

I mean, at this point it doesn't really matter, right? We have 2 kids. We own a house and 2 cars. We have crafted a life together that is hopelessly and irrevocably entwined. Nobody is getting out of this anytime soon, whether they want to or not and believe me there have been days (weeks) where one or the other of us wanted out. But it's not happening, big displays of love or not. We are committed - there is no doubting that.

At this point, showing our love is a ready to go pot of coffee in the morning, me making the meal plan for the week so when Peter has the kids he knows what's for dinner, putting gas in the car when you know the other person is going to drive it, picking up each other's holds at the library, making the bed, watching the kids while the other goes out with their friends, watching movies together in the evening. All those little thing that just make each other's lives a little bit easier. When it comes down to it, that's kind of what marriage is about, right?