Set a high standard for your marriage... and a low standard for the budget

Don't just aim at 50 years of being married together. Aim at 50 years of quality marriage.

Our neighbour next door, Sidi and Leif, is a retired elderly couple. I hope I will soon be able to take a picture of them. They are the ones who gave many self-sewn bibs to J. Sidi is a receptionist and Leif is a retired DSB train inspector. They are very simple people, not your conventional rich and smart type, but we have learned so much from them, from observing them and it gives a glimpse into their marriage.

Daddy told me that he saw them walking hand-in-hand down the street to get an ice-cream to share – oh what simple joy! But what a joy when you get to share it with your spouse… and even better… in your old age!

Just a month ago… it was a sunny winter day… fantastic weather… Daddy was at work... I was on the way back from grocery shopping after dropping J at the daycare… and I bumped into them… hand-in-hand going for a walk down the street. Oh what simple joy again!

And every evening we pass by their kitchen window on the common corridor back to our home, we will see them making dinner together. Leif is very good at cleaning chicken and fish :-), and Sidi is very good at baking.

I think when we retire, money will be tight as we will not have regular income to go to restaurants (not that we are doing it a lot now), but we can at least enjoy an ice-cream together like Sidi and Leif, and prayerfully we will still have the health to cook together and make our own food.

This is the kind of marriage I aspire to have. This is the kind of life I want to have with Daddy when we retire 30 years old the road. And thank God for putting this elderly couple just beside us, so that we can learn from their example :-)

20.2.11 update:
We invited them for tea today. This is the elderly couple, Leif and Sidi, whom I admire and respect so much.