Well, y’all, fire season is officially upon us. Wildland Man just got home from a long detail away and I’ve been hearing from other fire wives out there seeking encouragement in the trenches.
So, I thought this would be a good time to gather up all the wildland fire resources here on the blog into one neat and tidy, little blog post. That way any new wildland fire wives seeking connection and support for this fire life we live will have everything in one spot.
Wow, I mean, is it just me, or did the past four weeks just fly by? I can’t believe we are here at Week 4 of the Wife on Fire Challenge.
How have you been doing? Are you surprised by the reality of an intentional marriage? Would you claim to be a Wife on Fire by now?
Regardless of whether or not you’ve breezed through the past four weeks or if you’ve struggled to get each week’s task accomplished, you made it. You have reached the final week of the Wife on Fire Challenge. Which, I think, is cause for celebration!
Woot! Woot! If you started with the Wife on Fire Challenge two weeks ago, you have officially made it to the halfway point!
If you are just reading this post and you’re new to Country Wife Chronicles or you have just missed a few weeks of updates, please check out the first two posts of this series here:
In Week 1, I took some time to explain this idea that I hatched about bonding together to be better wives and encouraging one another in the process. It’s all about choosing intentional marriage and making the effort.
What does it mean to be a Wife on Fire?
At face value, directly from Google, here’s what you get:
Ok, that’s good, there’s our English lesson for the day.
But what does that mean in the context of marriage?
These past few weeks here at Country Wife Chronicles have been all about marriage. Strengthening Your Marriage, specifically.
Today, I’m super excited to be able to share a little resource with you that I’ve created. I’m sharing a template for a DIY Marriage Retreat designed to allow you to get away for a weekend and strengthen your marriage with intentionality.
But first, let me give you an idea as to what exactly a Marriage Retreat is.
One thing I know for sure. Our marriage is nothing, if not intentional. Day in and day out, we choose to make it a priority.
Even on the days I really don’t want to.
Even on the days I’d rather just be lazy about it.
Wildland Man and I decided early on in our relationship that marriage would take work and that it would require effort to keep the flame burning bright.
I’m a believer that a marriage in a not-so-great place can be turned around with a single act of kindness by one person. It has to start somewhere, somehow. What is there to lose by trying?
The next few weeks here at Country Wife Chronicles are all about marriage. I decided to write a whole series on “Strengthening Your Marriage.”
Not because I’m an expert or anything. Not because I know all there is to know about marriage. Not because Wildland Man and I have endured the deepest of depths in a lifelong marriage.
No, I’m not an expert. Or a counselor. I certainly don’t know it all, because I’m constantly trying to figure it out. Over and over again. Day after day. It is an intentional effort on my part to make this marriage not only work, but be great.
I never would have imagined this life for us…ten years post-college and we are both pursuing our dreams, a little delayed perhaps, but here we are chasing the fire life.
As you may have gathered by now, I refer to my hubby as Wildland Man…not so long ago we were high school teachers working in the same building and same department. Now I’m attempting the blogging thing and Wildland Man is, well, all about wildland fire. You can read more about our journey here.
This career change has come with some adjustments to what we were used to before, and a few major moves across the country; definitely some sacrifices along the way…but it’s been an adventure, a whole new world of exploration and learning. It is a life worth living and a life that is uniquely ours.
Country Wife Chronicles is a blog that documents the journey of a country wife seeking to savor the stillness of a simple country life…but who exactly is the Country Wife?
Ok, that statement sounds a little like “How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?” But I think you get where I’m going here…
So, grab yourself some coffee and peruse the pages of this blog and you’ll find out just who the Country Wife is.
First of all, let me just say that I do not claim to be a marriage expert. But I do have strong views about how being intentional in marriage can benefit any relationship. Because I’ve lived it…this is how I purposefully construct my marriage with Wildland Man. But I certainly won’t lie to you and tell you that what we have is perfection. Because it is not. But I keep going back to the intentionality in our relationship as one of the major contributing factors to our growing and ever-changing love for one another.