Eric - Words of Williams

By Eric on May 21, 2013 +

Introducing: the Words of Williams YouTube Channel

OK, we’re only eight years late to the game. According to Google, YouTube was founded in February 2005. Regardless, we’re getting in the game. Can I get a drum roll, please? There is now an official Words of Williams YouTube channel.

The survey we posted few weeks ago asked what formats you would like to see more money/budgeting information, and videos led the way. So, even though we both feel more comfortable behind a keyboard rather than a camera, we’re giving it a go. We’ve started to document our money story from the first time we realized what money was to what we know today (it’s been a wild ride). We spent an evening shooting and came up with five videos to start with. They will be posted in the coming weeks, so staty tuned.

In Blogging

By Eric on May 20, 2013 4

How Failure Can Make Your Marriage Stronger

How do you respond when you fail in life? I suppose fail by definition is different for everyone, but in a general sense, when you aim for something and fall short, how do you respond?

This is something that I often struggled with. I aim to please, and when I miss the mark I get a wrenching feeling in the pit of my stomach. You know the feeling? It hurts – I’m embarrassed, ashamed, regretful, disappointed, and sometimes even angry at myself.

And this is why I love being married! My wife knows more about me than anyone else would care to know. I mean, intimacy in marriage is more than what happens between the sheets [tweet that]. It means that we share our deepest darkest secrets with each other, and that we are brutally honest with one another, too (in love, of course).

I’m here to tell Kelsey when she has something in her teeth when nobody else will, and she points out all of the crazy ideas I’ve had over the years. It’s love at it’s finest. Let me explain…

In Marriage

By Eric on May 13, 2013 10

Giveaway {CLOSED}: Datevitation Coupon Book

Congratulations to Jesse Coulter for winning this giveaway and thanks to all who participated!

Sorry to hold the suspense until after Mother’s Day, but I had to keep this secret from Kelsey! Luckily the fine folks at Datevitation (see below for who they are and what they do!) contacted me and not Kelsey, because this was just the perfect Mother’s Day surprise I needed (since Kelsey usually picks out her gifts and lets me know where to order, removing all surprise elements).

Datevitation allowed me to test their process and I created a date coupon book as a Mother’s Day gift for Kelsey. It was a ton of fun, and I was overly impressed with the turnaround time. I ordered the custom book on a Friday and it arrived on Monday! What! I’d say it’s impossible, but it actually happened.

Continue Reading…

In Giveaway

By Eric on May 7, 2013 8

Family Time: Bike Rides

Two weekends ago we actually had four days in a row that resembled something that we used to call spring. Last year it never really arrived. Midwest USA must have decided to skip spring in 2012 and go right to summer, as we experienced 80 degrees in March.

Let’s just say, we didn’t want to waste the beautiful weather God gave us. So, we finally got our bikes out for the innagural Williams family bike ride. It was majestic! Or something close to it.

Rooney hated the idea at first, mainly because we had to pluck her from her favorite form of transportation (the stroller) and she wasn’t so sure about sitting so close to mommy’s tush. But, once we got her buckled in and were able to get the pedals going, she had a ball.

And so did we. It was reminiscent of family bike rides I used to take with my family as a kid, and there was something about just getting on a bike and riding somewhere for the fun of it. It just made the world slow down for a little bit.

In Fun

You may or may not have noticed fewer posts around here in the past month or so. I think it started when Rooney turned 1. She’s keeping us a little busier now! As a result, we’ve decided that three posts a week is more manageable for us right now than five. (Sometimes we sneak in a Rooney in Carts-type (casual and fun) post as well, which you don’t want to miss!) It’s that whole less-is-more debate…

In conjunction, and perhaps a little contradictory, we have some side projects that we have been working on and need time to get those off the ground. They’re pretty exciting (to us at least and we can’t wait to tell you more about them). If you want an exclusive first look at the details sign up for our newsletter.

Believe it or not, a big reason we write is to help others through what we’ve learned over the years. And we really love hearing your feedback. When you leave a comment, write us an email, or tell us in person what you liked/didn’t like about something we wrote, we take it to heart. We didn’t start this blog with the intention of growing such an awesome tribe of supporters, but it sure has been fun to watch it blossom.

That being said, we have a survey we would love for you to fill out! It has 10 questions and shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. It’s mostly multiple choice with one open-ended essay question.