Speaking Personally: This chapter in our love story

My love story with Ron is so cute it sounds made up. We met in passing, both with our separate apartments packed, ready to move to new cities. It felt like the Earth stopped the first time our eyes met. Our engagement year was spent in the French countryside where he made our wedding invitations by hand, making the paper from plants he harvested from the banks of the Indre river. After our marriage, we built a successful business in St. Louis that allowed us to pursue our dream of moving to the country. 

 

Now we’re here with four beautiful, healthy children. Our work is meaningful and fulfilling, and for 16 years, it’s been a charmed life of love, happiness, and babies. 

 

On paper. 

 

The reality of the life of a big family, small business ownership, and a long-lived marriage is not so glamorous in the day-to-day details. These days, our love story looks a lot more like tantrums and trips to the aquarium, hate mail and deadlines. 

 

I have a feeling in ten or twenty years, I’ll be looking back on these days of our growing family, and all its swirling chaos, and remembering only the romantic aspects of our life. One day, our memories will be all we have of this time, but I don’t want to spend this middle portion of our marriage waiting for memory to gloss over the grinding exhaustion so that I can see its beauty. 

I want to see it now. 

 

And I don’t really know how to do that.

 

Life in the Ozarks has never been easy, but it’s always seemed beautiful to me. One of my favorite things about our chosen home is the family-first culture we’ve found here. There’s a tight-knit sense of community that can only be built with strong family life as its foundation. 

 

As we look forward to celebrating Valentine’s Day at a table where one of the children will inevitably spill something and my food will get cold while I feed the baby, I am reflecting that a life full of hard work can also be a beautiful one. 

 

The distressing thing about being in the prime of life is feeling like I have SO MUCH left to learn. And that’s where you come in, dear readers. 

 

What do you wish you had done differently when your children were little? If you currently have young children, how do you slow down and enjoy them?

 

What are your best tips for thriving when the days seem so long, but you know the years are short?

 

I want to hear your advice and stories. Stop by the news office for a cup of coffee, or call at 417-252-2123, or even email editor@howellcountynews.com.

 

I’m determined not to skim this chapter of our love story.