Herb Crusted Pork Loin

Ingredients

1 (4-pound) boneless pork loin, with fat left on
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried basil or 2 teaspoons fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
brown sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Place the pork loin on a rack in a roasting pan. Combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. With your fingers, massage the mixture onto the pork loin, covering all of the meat and fat. Sprinkle with brown sugar, about 2 tablespoons or to taste.

Roast the pork for 30 minutes, then reduce the heat to 425 degrees and roast for an additional hour. Test for doneness using an instant-read thermometer. When the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees, remove the roast from the oven. Allow it to sit for about 20 minutes before carving. It will continue to cook while it rests.

Love Believes the Best, Day 7

Challenge: For today's dare, get two sheets of paper. On the first one, spend a few minutes writing out positive things about your spouse. Then do the same with negative things on the second sheet. Place both sheets in a secret place for another day. There is a different purpose and plan for each. At some point during the remainder of the day, pick a positive attribute from the first list and thank your spouse for having this characteristic.

Journal: Which list was easier to make? What did this reveal about your thoughts? What attribute did you thank your spouse for having?

So, what room do I spend more time in? Yikes...Not sure I want to think about that, so lets move on to the journaling.

For me, the positive list was easier to make. I take this as a good sign!!I really am so lucky to have him as a husband. The list of positives by far outnumbered the negatives. And the list of negatives that I came up with were so very minor, that it hardly was worth it to write them down, tho it did make me realize how inconsequential they were in the grand scheme of things. I won't bore you with the entire positive list, but some of the things listed included the following:

* Patient
* Kind
* Hard working
* Trusting
* Loving husband and father
* Forgiving
* Thoughtful
* Honest

I won't bore you with any of the negatives, because I'm believing the best in my husband and not going to focus on them.

What does this reveal about my thoughts? I realized that if I were making the lists about ME, it would be easier to write negative things over positive things. It seems I spend more time in the Appreciation Room when it comes to my husband, yet when it comes to me I tend to hang out more in the Depreciation Room.

We were then supposed to thank our spouse for something on the positive list later in the day. Tonight when he got home from work, I thanked him for being so trusting. He never questions anything that I do or who I'm with.

Now to hide the lists and see what's in store for them!

Love Is Not Irritable, Day 6

Challenge: Choose today to react to tough circumstances in your marriage in loving ways instead of with irritation. Begin by making a list below of areas where you need to add margin to your schedule. Then list any wrong motivations that you need to release from your life.

Journal: Where do you need to add margin to your life? When have you recently overreacted? What was your real motivation behind it? What decisions have you made today?

Today's chapter talks about how selfishness can take other forms, such as: lust, bitterness, greed, and pride. Out of this list of 4, I know that I have an issue with bitterness. I hold onto things and let them leak out when the smallest thing sets it off. I sit and I stew. I can hold onto things for days before either finding a way to let it go or go off. Grant it, usually I can end up letting it go, but there are those occasions that that doesn't happen. Since starting the Love Dare, I have tried to not hold onto things if they are not important.

Where do I need to add margin to my life...whew...most of you girls have seen my schedule! Is this question a joke? :) I probably need to add in some more "at home" time...the time where I just say "no" and stick to it. (This will probably kill me, so pray for me girls!)

When have I recently overreacted? That's a tough one because I'm a pretty easy going person. I suppose last week when Mike told me he was going to have to set up for VBS right after church instead of Sunday evening. That was not his fault, other than he didn't say no. He didn't plan that time, it was told to him. I did let it go and got over it...and I apologized for my reaction. My real motivation behind it was selfishness...that sounds so ugly.

What decisions have I made today? I'm going to let things go...not sweat the small things and not make mountains out of molehills. I also need to prioritize things and stick to my schedule, whether it's busy or has nothing on it.

Love is Not Rude, Day 5

Challenge: Ask your spouse to tell you three things that cause him to be uncomfortable or irritated with you. You must do so without attacking them or justifying your behavior. This is from their perspective only.

Journal: What things did your spouse point out about you that need your attention? How did you handle hearing it? What do you plan to do to improve these areas?

Okay, I didn't want to do today's challenge, of course, who does? Who really wants to find out what irritates their husband about themselves? Should I just take a fail on this one? Should I just blow it off...yeah, that's it! Okay, I didn't blow off the challenge all together, because I know how important it is and I really do want to better my marriage, I just went about it in a different way...I e-mailed him. I figured it would be easier for him to answer me honestly if he weren't telling me my faults to my face...I'm just hoping that he limits my faults to only three! I'll update with the results once he responds to the e-mail. Good luck with this one girls!

Update: Here was his response:
I don't know if I have three things that really bother me, but I'll give you what I've got.

One thing that bothers me (that you already know) is how you leave things lying around instead of putting them where they go. To sum it up lack of order.

As far as personality traits/character stuff, there really isn't anything that bothers me much. It used to bother me how you didn't think ahead or get stuff ready ahead of time, but since the girls have come along you seem to get better about that all of the time.

Do you HAVE to have three things?

Love is Thoughtful, Day 4

Challenge: Contact your spouse sometime during the business of the day. Have no agenda other than asking how he or she is doing and if there is anything you could do for them.

Journal: What did you learn about yourself or your spouse by doing this today? How could this become a more natural, routine, and genuinely helpful part of your lifestyle?

First off, I'm going to start by finishing off yesterday's challenge. Today I bought Mike a lovey-dovey card and put a little coupon in it for dinner at the restaurant of his choice next time we're going out together.

Now to Day #4...I must confess that this challenge is super duper easy for me because we do this already on a regular basis. We normally talk on the phone several times a day while Mike is at work. He calls to check on me and the kids, and I fill him in on the day's activities. I hate that he misses out on so much that we do, so I do my very best to help him feel connected, even while he is at work. Someone asked me a couple weeks ago if my hubby was very controlling because I call him to let him know what's going on...No, I don't call him because he wants to know where I'm at every second of the day or everything we do all day long...that would take more time and energy than it would be worth, I do it because I love him and because I want him to know that no matter what we're doing I'm thinking about him. (I also sent him a message on Facebook today, so do I get extra credit?)

Love is Not Selfish, Day 3

Challenge: Whatever you put your time, energy, and money into will become more important to you. It's hard to care for something you are not investing in. Along with restraining from negative comments, buy your spouse something that says, "I was thinking of you today."

Journal: What did you choose to give to your spouse? What happened when you gave it?

Okay, first off, I have to laugh because Friday I was feeling selfish...should have looked ahead in the book!

Day 3, and I have already failed a challenge. I did not buy Mike anything today. Nothing. Nadda. Zippo. Zilch.

Today Mike had to help set up the sound system for VBS so I went with my parents and the girls to the Air Show. There wasn't too much opportunity to buy something that Mike would need there. I should have planned ahead. I should have made it a priority to go buy him a gift. I didn't. I have my reasons that would completely validate why I could not follow through, but the raw truth is I did not make him a priority today, the Love Dare a priority.

Honestly, buying anything for Mike scares me...what in the world would he want or need? So, in the spirit of honesty, maybe I did not follow through not because of all my "valid" reasons, but because I have a hard time with this anyway so I just used those reasons to validate my failure.

I will complete this task, it just has to wait until tomorrow when I am not spending the day at the Air Show getting sunburnt. :) On to Day 4! Bring it! :)

Love is Kind, Day 2

Challenge: In addition to saying nothing negative to your spouse again today, do at least one unexpected gesture as an act of kindness.

Journal: What discoveries about love did you make today? What specifically did you do in this are? How did you show kindness?

Okay, in my effort to accomplish Day 2, I was thinking about discoveries about love that I made today and I realized how we really need to make an effort to show acts of kindness to our spouse. I mean, if you think about it, we seem to really go out of our way to do this for others, even complete strangers...we will hold the door for someone entering a store, drop everything to reach out to others in our lives and communities, take on too much for others, but when it comes to our husbands and children we tend to give them the "leftovers". I feel like I try hard NOT to do this, but today I realized I am guilty of this as well. I get busy with anything and everything in my day to day life, I tend to be very tired or stressed or just too lazy to make an effort to give my family what I am more than willing to give to others, even complete strangers. Makes lots of sense, doesn't it? Why in the world do we do this?

I wanted to do something out of the ordinary today as my "unexpected gesture of kindness", but it didn't happen quite like I was hoping. Saying nothing negative to my hubby today was extremely easy, but I didn't see Mike for most of the day today. :) As an unexpected gesture of kindness, since Mike worked on a friend's garage all day, we went out for dinner as a family. It was a nice evening. I also left a note on the bathroom mirror,

"Mike, I appreciate all you do! Love, Trisha"

I know that doesn't seem like much, but as much as I do appreciate Mike I really don't tell him near enough.

I feel like today, as far as the Love Dare stuff goes, was a success. Day 2 down, life to go. :)

Love is Patient, Day 1 cont...

Okay, just got home from going into town, let me just say that the patience I have with my husband and my kids is tons more patience than I have for idiot drivers, but that's a entirely different issue to work on! LOL

Love Is Patient, Day 1

Challenge: The first part of this dare is fairly simple. Although love is communicated in a number of ways, our words often reflect the condition of our heart. For the next day, resolve to demonstrate patience and to say nothing negative to your spouse at all. If the temptation arises, choose not to say anything. It's better to hold your tongue than to say something you'll regret.

Journal: Did anything happen today to cause anger toward your husband? (What about your kids?) Where you tempted to think disapproving thoughts and to let them come out in words?

Today is Day 1, Love is patient. Oh boy...here we go! Patience is not one of my strongest virtues, it is something I know, and have known it is an area I need to really work on. Patience with my husband does not seem to be that much of a challenge for me, but patience with the girls ,and with life, well that is the real challenge.

The book states, "Love will inspire you to become a patient person.". Hmmmm...I never thought about it that way, that patience and love go hand in hand. I mean my mind can grasp the concept, but have I really led my own heart to make the connection, to inspire patience within me? I mean, I know it is the right thing to do, I have been taught this from the Bible, but it never really sunk in, and it is much easier said than done!

As I write this I realize what I said is not true. I do have issues with patience with Mike at times. (An epiphany perhaps...where's that little light bulb that's supposed to be above my head?) God speaking to my heart once again. I vowed when I took on this dare that I would be real. I would face things head on and acknowledge the truth about myself. Honestly, I have a tendency to try to seek the positive in everything and I sometimes neglect to realize the reality of things as they are versus how I want them to be.

Ok, so back to Mike. Let me rephrase what I stated above, most of the time patience is not an issue for me in regards to him. Now, from his perspective about me, well that's probably a whole different story, so we'll not ask!

My morning for Day 1 started off with a bang...Mike has been asked to help out with some of the setup for VBS at Harvest and that was fine. This morning he told me that the setup time is now following church. This didn't sit well with me and I as far as the dare goes I was successful in not "saying" anything negative to him, but my attitude was all wrong. Actions speak louder than words, right? The Lord reminded me again just how selfish I am and when he gets home from work, I know that I need to ask his forgiveness for being so selfish.

As far as how I did with the girls on the dare, well considering they weren't with most of the day I did great. My parents met me at the library and dropped them off at lunch time, afterwards we ran some errands and they've been playing great together all afternoon. Praise God! But I wasn't perfect, I did react in anger a time or two when they were getting on each others nerves (not taking into consideration how tired they are), and therefore getting on my nerves. The Lord is really working on me with my short fuse and I know that as I yield to Him that He will allow me to improve in this area.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what is in store and I am going to keep on working on Dare #1 until I get it right. (It could be a while!)

Make An Investment in YOUR Marriage...I DARE YOU!

Last year Mike and I went to see the movie Fireproof. It was awesome. The acting was decent, but the message was incredible. It really touched my heart and stirred up a longing to have a deeper, closer relationship with my hubby.

Earlier this week, while talking to some of the girls in the mom's group on the phone, we discussed the study book we were doing and some feelings about it. After those phone calls I was feeling led to suggest changing our study book for the time being. I had decided last week that I would do the Love Dare book myself and Kathy was going to do it with me, but after praying about it for a couple days I felt a great peace about suggesting it as a replacement study book. Fast-forward to today in our Mom's Group Bible Study we decided to switch gears and do the Love Dare book instead.

I’m determined to get through the entire book, be completely transparent with myself, and to make an improvement in myself and in our marriage. Please pray for me, and the other mom's that are taking on this dare, and look for my Day 1 post tomorrow!

By the way, Fireproof came out on DVD a few months ago. Check it out with your spouse and take on the Love Dare yourself. I’d love to hear about your journey.

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