Building a Sailboat & Strengthening Marriage

For awhile Landon has been talking about building a sailboat and we finally took the plunge.

I have pretty much no interest in anything to do with building, but Landon asked if I would like to help him. He thought it would be a good activity for us to do together. (Melt my heart!) So of course I'm trying to be involved as I can.

The first step was buying all the lumber. Remember how we have a tiny 2 door Toyota Paseo? Yeah, we do a lot with our car. All the people with their trucks were looking at us like we were crazy (and we probably are) but hey, it worked great with the ski racks! We had a few strangers even offer to take the lumber home for us. So funny! We could not stop laughing about the whole situation as we drove home.

The next step was to trace the patterns onto the wood using tracing paper. I pretty much sat on the plans so they wouldn't move while Landon did the tracing.

Step three is where we're at now--cutting out all of the pieces. Landon's never done wood working before, but you'd never be able to tell. I don't know how he does it... he never ceases to amaze me!

Once the pieces are all cut we will move onto the fiberglass stage and eventually we'll have a sailboat that looks like this:

So how does building a sailboat have anything to do with strengthening marriage? Well I don't claim to be a marriage expert, but I have learned a thing or two in the short 2.5 years I've been a wife...

Building a sailboat together means spending quality time together. Not just time sitting in front of a movie. It's why I LOVE our nightly walks so much. We go for a walk every single night, rain or shine, because we know it is important for our marriage. It is time for us to focus on each other, to have nothing to do but talk and laugh together. As we build this sailboat over the next few months we will have a common goal and a project we're working on together. It means we'll be spending a lot of quality time together. And when we're all done, we're going to have a new hobby that we both share and have a passion for.

I'm so grateful that Landon is consistently working on strengthening our marriage and that he wants me to be involved in building this sailboat. I know I'm not much help, but he knew it would be a great way to grow closer together.

Marriage is forever, so you have to treat it that way. It requires effort & work. It requires sacrifice & making TIME for each other. I think one day we'll look back on this experience and be grateful we shared it together...because everyone and their dog tells me how different things will be when kids are introduced into our little family. So we are taking advantage of these precious moments we have with just the two of us. It's my favorite and I truly feel closer and closer to Landon every day.