July 20th marked two months of me living in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska. And in all honesty, you could say it was my two month mark of being a wife (since I spent the majority of the first 6 months of marriage away from my husband).Needless to say, it has been a little tricky getting into the swing of things.
Before I moved to Alaska, my life was like a pile of dirt that hadn't been moved in a while - all the dirt was settled and the pile was compacted and easy to manage. I had a wonderful group of friends, lived with my sister and cousins, loved my job as a figure skating coach, was a full time college student who knew the drill, and loved Missouri.
But then I graduated college and left everything to become an Army wife in a state that is 3500 miles away from everything familiar to me. It was as though my neat a tidy pile of dirt was thrown up into the air. I have had to readjust to being a wife, not having a job, not having my close friends, and relying on faith and patience that with the Lord's and Marshall's help, I would be able to find my place in Alaska. Below is a list of a few things that I have learned, as a result from readjusting to a new life:
1) I was finally initiated into wifehood after I made my first awful dinner as a wife. Note to self: don't use soy sauce as a base for stir fry. It is a seasoning for added flavor. Nothing more.
2) "In the Eternal Scheme of things, it doesn't matter." I never knew how much this would affect me, but it helps me not worry at all about silly mistakes I make. I have a tendency to get flustered over the small things, and this phrase is helping me be a more optimistic wife and person!
3) "Fake it till you make it." Some days it is just so hard to be confident in myself, because I am human. But it is important to act confident even when I may not feel 100%. If I act in the manner that I desire to feel, eventually that desire will become reality. This confidence will help me as I seek out ways to serve in the Army, as a coach, a friend, and wife.
4) Count my blessings. Seriously. How often do we complain about our lot in life, only to forget about the thousands of blessings and tender mercies from the Lord? Writing these blessings down has helped me be more optimistic as well. I have started to keep a running list of my small blessings in life, and I will post the list in a future post.
Before I moved to Alaska, my life was like a pile of dirt that hadn't been moved in a while - all the dirt was settled and the pile was compacted and easy to manage. I had a wonderful group of friends, lived with my sister and cousins, loved my job as a figure skating coach, was a full time college student who knew the drill, and loved Missouri.
But then I graduated college and left everything to become an Army wife in a state that is 3500 miles away from everything familiar to me. It was as though my neat a tidy pile of dirt was thrown up into the air. I have had to readjust to being a wife, not having a job, not having my close friends, and relying on faith and patience that with the Lord's and Marshall's help, I would be able to find my place in Alaska. Below is a list of a few things that I have learned, as a result from readjusting to a new life:
1) I was finally initiated into wifehood after I made my first awful dinner as a wife. Note to self: don't use soy sauce as a base for stir fry. It is a seasoning for added flavor. Nothing more.
2) "In the Eternal Scheme of things, it doesn't matter." I never knew how much this would affect me, but it helps me not worry at all about silly mistakes I make. I have a tendency to get flustered over the small things, and this phrase is helping me be a more optimistic wife and person!
3) "Fake it till you make it." Some days it is just so hard to be confident in myself, because I am human. But it is important to act confident even when I may not feel 100%. If I act in the manner that I desire to feel, eventually that desire will become reality. This confidence will help me as I seek out ways to serve in the Army, as a coach, a friend, and wife.
4) Count my blessings. Seriously. How often do we complain about our lot in life, only to forget about the thousands of blessings and tender mercies from the Lord? Writing these blessings down has helped me be more optimistic as well. I have started to keep a running list of my small blessings in life, and I will post the list in a future post.
5) It's okay to experiment, and I highly recommend it. Experiment with meals, and in your workouts, and with projects. Not all of my dinners have been perfectly successful. But we've always had dinner to eat, and I have learned new techniques and flavor combinations along the way. If I wasn't willing to try new things, I wouldn't have gone to the running club's training sessions on Tuesday nights. I have since improved my running and made a couple new friends. Allowing myself to experiment is sometimes scary for me because I hate to fail. But then I just remember the movie, "Meet the Robinsons," and remind myself that failure often times leads to more growth.
6) Overuse the phrase, "I love you" to Marshall. If spoken with sincerity, I really don't think it can be said too often. I know he knows I love him, but I live daily to find knew ways to express it to him.
I am far from being perfect, but I have grown a lot over the last 2 months. As incapable I may feel at times, I try to always remind myself that I am starting to get the hang of this!
Loved this post. Those were great tips for me to read, and they really helped me. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYou are awesome Jenessa. A lot of those things you have learned take some of us a lot longer then 2 months to learn. Well I guess for me I have to re-learn them often. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome Sheri! I know what you mean Sarah. I feel like I need reminders all the time :). But that's what friends and family are for.
ReplyDeleteI was totally thinking about doing a blessing list for a future blog post too! Mind if I still do? :)
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