Happy To Be In Love With My Best Friend on Our Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was Day 102 of the Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Project and it was also my wedding anniversary.  After making a run to Kroger after Zumba last night to load up on necessities for a much-anticipated family wedding/vacation, I rushed home to give my  hubby his card and favorite fat-free treat. We hadn’t gotten any time together because he’d left the house at the crack of dawn to watch my stepsons’ first college golf match of the season and had just beat me home. Once we were both there, after a speedy but sincere exchange of “Happy Anniversary” and “I love you”, I headed upstairs to pack while he remained at his desk wrapping up some last-minute tasks before our trip. “Honey, shouldn’t you be packing?” I asked. “It’ll take me no time,” was his quick response. Doubtful, I let him be. After over a decade together, I know him well enough to let him believe he’d pack quickly.

A vignette on a tallboy dresser in our bedbroom. I love seeing a wedding picture from our bed. Shabby Chic style frame from Sheffield Home, distressed urn with while ranuncula roses, all reminsiscent of those I carried in my bouquet were all found at TJMaxx over the years.                   The Simply Shabby Chic ceramic night light that now serves as a decorative piece lost it’s plug – still pretty. I inherited the green paint color. hope to paint the room in my signature soft white. 

By the time my hubby did join me in our bedroom, it was in a total state of disarray. I warned him before he entered and then shoved all of my stuff to my side of our king bed so he could pack on his side. Within a short period of time, the bed was covered with men’s and women’s clothing, shoes and accessories. And I thought the room was a mess before he started! Rather than celebrating our anniversary, we spent the evening trying on clothes and asking for each other’s opinions – on color, fit, style, etc. It was So.Much.Fun. There was a time when my husband didn’t really seek my opinion on his attire, but we’ve evolved and are so much more symbiotic – in a good way. I’m looking foward to being, not matchy-matchy – heaven forbid! – but coordinated with my spouse as we hang out with our family over the next few days.

This hangs in my daughter’s room but is SO true of her mama. And my hubby. By the time I’ve decided what to wear, it looks like a clothing warehouse, albeit a nice one, exploded! The artwork and flowers are from TJMaxx. The shade and night light are Simply Shabby Chic- Target. 

By the time we’d made all our decisions and the bed was finally cleared off, we were both too exhausted to do anything but fall into it and go to sleep. I vaguely regreted not having a romantic evening or blogging but was so happy to fall asleep with my best friend holding my hand. I realized it was romantic. And I’d have some great pics for the blog as a result of our efforts.

As a Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Chick who is so happy to be in love with my husband and celebrating my anniversary, I know why destroying our bedroom as we packed was such a good time. It was with my best friend.

~Pink Collar Coach

Pink Collar Coach’s Picks – Novel Review – Before We Were Yours

Day 91 of the Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Project has me trying something new: Book Reviews. Growing  up in a dysfunctional home in an impoverished neighborhood, reading a good book was an escape into another time and place. Today, I’m a grown up with a dysfunctional family! And though I no longer live in a poor neighborhood thanks to a good education, hard work, and a whole lot of God’s grace, there are few better ways for me to take a step back from my personal and professional life than to submerge myself  wholeheartedly into the fictitious lives of the characters in a novel.

Contemporary Christian and historical fiction, chick lit, and recently the occasional light romance a la Debbie Macomber, are my genres of choice. As much as I love to read, I’m fairly selective and have had the same list of favorite Christian and secular authors for twenty-plus years. The bad news about that is many of my beloved authors like Maeve Binchy and Belva Plain have died in the last few years. It’s a heartache knowing I’ll never pick up a new book written by them…The good news is I’m broadening my horizons and exploring new authors. Lisa Wingate is one of them.

Before We Were Yours is the second novel I’ve read by this author. And while I just spoke of escaping to another place and time, the Memphis children’s home where this adaptation of real-life events unfolds in the summer of 1939 is not a place one would want to visit. The disturbing, riveting plot depicts the kidnapping and selling of poor children to wealthy families. Wingate delves deeply into how this brutalizes the Foss children in particular, who are taken from their carefree lives as river gypsies and plunged into brutality, grief, and loss that would be indescribable – apart from Wingate’s gifted ability to describe it. The damage done to these children, seen through the perceptive, wise eyes of Rill, the eldest daughter, is far reaching and has ramifications for generations to come. Yet, there is some redemption…As much as this story left me incredulous about the inhumane lengths to which some will go to get what they want, I was equally in awe of the resilience of the human spirit and its capacity to bounce back in order to ultimately get what it needs.

As a Pink Collar Savvy & Chic on Purpose Chick who truly believes we read to know that we are not alone, this book is one that will not only educate readers on one of America’s most notorious scandals, ultimately I believe it will remind you, as it did me, of a promise. For those of us who have had loved ones stolen away, or families ripped apart, through deception, death, divorce, or other dastardly deeds, one day, what we lost will be restored. Perhaps not in the same form, but if we’re open to receive, however that is manifested, God will restore.

How you might ask? I suppose you’ll just have to read Before We Were Yours to find out…

~ Pink   Collar Coach