Wonderful Valentine's

Happy Valentine's day to you all! I hope you had a wonderful day filled with the reminders of how much you are loved!

Our sermon today was wonderful... about loving others, agape love, and love in the marriage. Love as Christ loved the church. The thing that stuck out to me was how our pastor mentioned the love chapter... 1 Cor 13... replace the word 'love' with 'Jesus', and you get exactly how we are supposed to act as a church. It was eye opening. Am I truly loving others? Am I showing those traits that God wants us to display as members of his church? As his bride? Am I loving and submitting to Him as I should... as I would to my husband... and am I loving and submitting to my husband as I need to? Then he defined submission as the act of sacrificing my best interest for that of my husband... to try to do what is best for him. Not for me. Submission is often a touchy subject since many of the older generation generally regarded it as almost a form of slavery. That is not what it is at all... it is more... so much more... and so much better.

Am I submissive as I should be? To my husband? To my God? Something I've been pondering... and will hopefully continue to ponder as I attempt to grow constantly in that area.

On a fun note, these last few days have been full of fun and planning. Really. I've had so much fun with the last days of Valentines... although some of them took a lot out of me (I've been getting so tired lately... especially Friday and Saturday... I spent far too much time in that kitchen, ha ha).

Day 10 - 10 loving verses

On the tenth I hid ten verses around the house for him to find. Ten verses on love (or passages). One was on the desktop background... 1 Cor 13, actually. I made a bookmark for in his Bible, a magnet for on the fridge, two sticky notes (one on the cereal box, one in his checkbook), hearts on his boots, in his cell phone, one on his pillow, one in his dresser drawer, and sent him a verse on his facebook. I tell you... figuring out 10 places he sees regularly and getting creative with them gets really difficult after awhile! No joke! I love this kind of thing though. I think I should do it more often, for no reason (just leave little love notes in random places for him to find whenever... tee hee).

Day 11 - 11 minutes of massage

He LOVED day 11... especially since his back has been so sore from wiring in the barn all day.

Day 12 - 12 homemade turtles

I made these on the 11th... and I thought they would be easy, but with a kiddo at my feet all the time they took a lot longer than expected. A LOT longer. I ended up burning the first batch of pecans (and didn't bother toasting a second, they tasted fine without being toasted and the recipe didn't call for it anyway, but I like to do things different and make more work for myself, obviously). I did this while attempting to make supper... and part of day 13's gift. Doing too much at once with a kiddo who needs constant attention was not smart on my part. Ah well... the burnt pecans just went into the trash anyway.

As for the time in the kitchen on Saturday...

We had our candlelight dinner (after spending the day walking around malls in the city... for 5 hours straight...). It was splendid! I had it planned in advance (and made the dessert on the 12th, so I didn't have to worry about that one, thank goodness). The meal consisted of:

• scalloped potatoes
• glazed ham
• ginger/cinnamon glazed carrots
• sparkling cranberry/apple beverage
• Red Velvet cake for dessert

... It was great! Not happening again any time soon (I'll be happy if I don't have to spend more than 15 minutes working on a meal for the next few days... not to mention cleanup, ha ha... although I love eating on fancy dishes and think we should all do so more often), but it was great! Baby M loved the meal (she had 3 helpings... and she was tired... and she ate anyway). I even gave her an entire piece of cake for dessert (not a big piece, but she got her own piece nonetheless).

Baby M's meal... serving #1

Day 13 - 13 lovely garnishes

Day 13 I incorporated into the dinner... made 13 chocolate hearts to place on the cake. The frosting didn't turn out, so I attempted adding whipped cream, which just wanted to run and caused the garnishes to keep falling down. It tasted great though! And hubby didn't mind at all. He just wanted to eat it anyway! :)

As for 'red' velvet cake, it was more like 'pink' velvet cake since I was unwilling to put an entire bottle of red food coloring into the batter. 1 Tbsp is more than enough in my books!

Day 14 - 14 Strawberry Marshmallows

Day 14 I made simple. Because it needed to be simple. And, my husband loves those marshmallow hearts... I don't know why, but he does. So, I bought him a bag. Yes, technically that is more than 14, so I counted out 14 and put them in a mini bag he could take with him to eat later. He loves those marshmallows...

We went to my parents today for Valentine's. They decided to do something special for us (which was absolutely wonderful)! They made us a special dinner, and served us food to eat while they fed our kids mac n cheese and wieners.

They set the table all nice and pretty too. I loved it! We got valentine's chocolates from them (I need to hide mine from myself or I may just eat the whole thing in one sitting... I can't believe how much I am eating lately). They had wine for us (I had to taste it since they said it was soooo good, and it was! But I had orange juice instead), and the meal was great! All new recipes that dad found online. Thanks so much, mom and dad! Really... I loved it!

And so did Baby M. Once she was done her plate, she got more... and then Cousin A left to play and M went to her plate to finish what was on it! I thought it was hilarious! You'd think we never fed the poor girl, she just loved that KD so much!

The decorations really attracted attention.

Mom wanted to get pics of all the kids together. M didn't wish to cooperate...


...Really didn't wish to cooperate.

Can you see the molar? I can see the molar! What a pretty molar you have! :)

In all, it was a great weekend! I loved it!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day! :)