As For Me and My House: Crafting Your Marriage to Last

Most books on marriage offer ten easy steps and twenty-five proven principles for achieving marital bliss. But Walter Wangerin side-steps such easy answers and offers us instead an intimate portrait of his own courtship and thirty-two year marriage-and a pastoral view of married life that inspires readers to view their own marriages with new honesty and hope. Wangerin's six tasks of marriage encourages couples to better understand and happily live out the vows they made, giving them tools to nurture and maintain a strong marital relationship. In his endorsement, Philip Yancey accurately describes this book as "an enduring classic and a book of wisdom, beauty, compassion, and piercing honesty."

Most books on marriage offer ten easy steps and twenty-five proven principles for achieving marital bliss. But Walter Wangerin side-steps such easy answers and offers us instead an intimate portrait of his own courtship and thirty-two year marriage-and a pastoral view of married life that inspires readers to view their own marriages with new honesty and hope. Wangerin's six tasks of marriage encourages couples to better understand and happily live out the vows they made, giving them tools to nurture and maintain a strong marital relationship. In his endorsement, Philip Yancey accurately describes this book as "an enduring classic and a book of wisdom, beauty, compassion, and piercing honesty."

1. There is not one person on this planet that I do not love. I have an enormous and passionate heart. 2. When I was a small child I wanted more than anything to have my own house ~ I would drag large boxes out into fields and cut out windows and hang tea towels for curtains, decorating from dawn until dusk. I also would also hide in cupboards and shine little movies onto the wall with a flashlight and film negatives. 3. My grandfather taught me to swing dance when I was three ~ and also to box. He bought me an electric train set and leather boxing gloves for Christmas and I thought that was way cooler than barbie dolls. 4. I love to write and I try to write from a place so much larger than myself to help make the world a beautiful place. 5. It has been a beautiful journey for me to know it is alright to say "I don't know" ~ and patiently live my way into the answers. ( Well, perhaps still working on the patience bit:) 6. I have a telescope and when i peer up into the eternal sky at night...I never fail to be filled with wonder. That is where the sacred meets the everyday for me. I also get the same feeling when I visit cathedrals and places of worship which makes me feel so reverant and blessed to be alive in this world. 7. I discovered poetry in a Woody Allen film (Hanna and her Sisters) at a Revue cinema. When I heard the line 'nobody, not even the rain has such small hands' I sat bolt upright and shouted "who wrote that? who wrote that poem!!?" (true story) 8. I cry often since i am tenderly wired to feel the beauty and the sorrow in life so movingly. I also cry often because I miss my Dad so much. 9. Reading out loud in bed to my love fills me with a gorgeous ache of intimacy. 10. Being a mother made the world so profoundly personal to me and now every child in this world is my child. 11. I actually have a fear/phobia of answering the phone ~ if I talk to you on the phone it is because I love you very very much. 12. I am a morning person ~ I wake up so incredibly happy to write and sip coffee and am quite convinced that God made mornings just for me. Everything just seems so utterly perfect and hopeful at this quiet hour. 13. Leonard Cohen (plato) said 'know thyself' and gosh, I just think that man is the bees knees. 14. Traveling to India alone with my 10 year old son was the bravest thing I ever did. It changed the trajectory of my life in a million startling ways and is my heart's home. 15. At present all that I deeply believe in my soul is being put into practice and testing me most truly and beautifully. So I say 'yes' now and forever with all of my heart and soul to experience the highest realization of love in my life. Love makes everything else possible. 16. I love hats. I am very fond of hats.

We got together to help Leilani decorate the tree at my parent's house. This is actually an artificial tree that Dad loves, though it's started to get pretty old and rickety. Dad and Leilani are on the left, hanging ornaments, Ryan is on the right preparing an ornament, and I'm on the right playing with a baby toy that was lying around.