20 Amazingly Long, Difficult, Sweet Years

I was one of those little girls who thought getting married would be like the princess who gets carried off into the sunset by the handsome prince. And while I did meet my prince, our life afterwards was no "happily ever after for ever and all time." Rather it has been filled with the sweetest of memories, the most difficult of times. Times when we loved each other fiercely, times when we could hardly get along, times when we stood together and stood strong, and times when we couldn't see eye to eye. The secret is knowing you are in it for the long haul. That this moment, however difficult, may end up being just a tiny blip on the radar of a life-long relationship.

I am certainly no example of how to do it right and do it well all of the time. I've made more than my share of mistakes. But I do love my husband, and he loves me; and we TRY to figure it out as we go along. We rely on the commitment that we made to each other when we were married. We pray often for guidance. We try to apologize and treat each other respectfully.

Some people seem to get this whole program much more quickly than have I. I think I'm a slow learner. But I'm determined to figure it out and maybe that's why my husband and I have been together 20 years (married 19). There are days when it seems like FOREVER and there are other times when I can hardly believe how quickly it's gone. I suppose that's natural. Either way, I'm grateful for what we have. I know it can and will get better and that makes me happy to know that he and I are on this journey together.

Here is a layout I created for Two Peas in a Bucket about the lessons I have learned over those 20 years:

For the left side of the layout, I used my Silhouette machine to cut the large "20" and the "years" text. (I actually welded together two words to get the word "years"). I then hand cut the dimensional banner and hung tags from it with twine.

Rather than just journal one long paragraph of text, I created paper banner strips that I hung vertically on my page. No reason not to make a layout more interesting just by changing up the way you approach your journaling:

Below you will find supplies to use to recreate this layout. Look for unique ways to present your story: eye-catching elements that elevate the journaling!

Supplies: (Click photos to link back to the supplies.)

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