Sunday, February 15, 2009

How do you summarize love?...

A house with hearts 'exploded' on every surface...
(I searched the word 'love' in the scriptures, and printed out every scripture containing the word love on laminated paper hearts, and taped them all over the house.) Some of my favorites:
Song of Solomon 1:9
I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. (how romantic!)
Doctrine & Covenants 42:45
Thou shalt live together in love
and
Amos 5:15
Hate the evil and love the good...
trust me, there are a LOT. Find your favorite!
A son serving his new friends in Belize.
(...and he comes HOME in two days!)
An evening of FRESH seafood with my own Mr. W.
on Fish Pier in Boston;
(anything remotely connected to the ocean gets me all swooney)
preceded by a trip to the temple together. A big THANK YOU to A-man, who watched Mr. M for almost SEVEN hours! It was a great gift to your parents.
children who make their own lunch so mom doesn't have to,
home-made cinnamon toast, strawberries
and hot cocoa with whipped cream, spa treatment for toes big and little,
...AND...
children who encouraged other children to be QUIET while mom napped;more berry-licious smoothies for breakfast,
plus
new reading material for everyone:
(of which I plan to fully partake)
Savvy by Ingrid Law
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
The Magic of Ordinary Days by Ann Howard Creel
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, and
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gailman
Looking back, I think that one of my favorite parts of this past two weeks of love was reflecting on the reasons why I love each member of our family so much. And telling them. By actually saying so, or writing it in notes, or showing them through simple or creative ways.
Oh... and lest I forget, spouseman's favorite Valentine tradition: he takes me to the drug store, where we peruse the Valentine Card aisle together. We each pick out our top three cards to each other, read them together, and then put them back. Then we treat ourselves to our favorite kind of ice cream instead. It's what we like to call Provident Valentine-ing.
To sum it up?
LOVED it.

9 comments:

shirlgirl said...

What a fun Valentine's Day for all of you. Looks like the kiddos had a great time, and their lunches look awesome. They can fix me lunch any time! I'll even try those fruitie smoothies--nice and healthy, too. Some of the books you listed look interesting as well. Thank you for your musings in a journey through life. I'll bet the week for R went by much too fast. What an awesome experience for him. Would love to hear all about it.

LL said...

YOU WIN! love all the fun ideas you've had over the last two weeks.

Jo Jo said...

Yes, it was a great experiment on love.

Becky said...

LOVED the provident valentine-ing...I might have to copy you on this, good stuff. Steve and I are going on our valentine date tomorrow. :) GREAT JOB J!

Marilyn said...

What a day! Everything you did was wonderful! My favorite was the fish dinner on the coast. I'm jealous.

Christy said...

Love to live in your house!
The provident card shopping has me cracking up...
I've read one of those books, Ann Creel, it is a wonderful uplifting story! Good pick!

smart mama said...

you rock I love the zeal you have infused int he challenge- you will definitely receive a prize my friend

Swimmingmom said...

Great job! You are inspiring and I've enjoyed reading some of the things you've done over the past couple of weeks. You really put your heart into it;-) no pun intended.

Sidenote- the NO Name is AWESOME!!!!

Anonymous said...

Jen, dad and I do the same thing with cards.
We had such a fun time with the musical cards...even dancing in the aisles of Walmart.
I can't remember who taught us that, but it's great.
mom