Valentine’s Day

Ah, Valentine’s Day.

First, read this, please. This post resonated with me because this day pretty much stunk for me for a lot of years and I know it still stinks for a lot of people for different reasons. And while I’m so, so thankful to God for the opportunity to love on my family on this day, it makes me sad that days like this are not happy ones for everyone. So I hem and haw and wait until it’s almost not February before proceeding with posts like this.

So with that said…

********

We celebrated a day early for a few reasons, but mostly because it just worked out that way with the kids’ school schedule.

It started with heart-shaped pancakes for the kids’ breakfast.  No pictures of the others because school mornings are harried as it is and making then serving heart-shaped pancakes almost did me in.

But this guy and I got to return home to seconds with the whole morning unscheduled ahead of us which was definitely alright with us.

Then the hubs walked in with these and this.  Because he just knows, you know?

The Pathlights (young adult) group at our church offered free babysitting that evening so parents with young kids could go out for an early Valentine’s date. We don’t often ask people to babysit for us because we know it’s asking a lot to watch four kids, so we definitely jumped at this chance! They even fed the kids dinner so we didn’t have to worry about packing food for them- yet another huge blessing to me.

So with kids dropped off into good hands, we scooted out and had an altogether lovely evening. This guy had made reservations at La Rive Gauche.

No kids means mama’s gonna get a fancy grown-up drink.  😉

These little guys and I meet again. But this time, they turned out to be delicious! Much better than the first one I tried.

The food was awesome. The decor though was very orange and grandmotherly. Comforting, in its own way.

Delicious bites eaten at a leisurely pace over even better conversation that came relaxed and easy. Feeling especially thankful for that last part having gone through seasons when talking to each other felt anything but relaxed and easy. Thank you, God.

Finished with this souffléd delight. And because we didn’t specify that we wanted one to share, I got this puppy all to myself.

Thank you honey for being my Valentine for the last fifteen years and never missing an opportunity to make a night out extra special.

And thank you Pathlights ministry for doing this. We are so grateful and blessed by your service!