Happy Valentine's Day- A celebration of true love

Hi one and all.  Since we've been gone for so long, I figured a holiday might be a good day to get things rolling again.

So welcome to Valentine's Day 2014.  Hope you had a special one either celebrating the love you share with others or some to reflect on God's amazing love for you.

The day began in the Miller household with a 5:30 call that it was a snow day.  Valentine's Day and a snow day just meant it should be awesome, right?  Plus Ethan had already been home the day before because of a stomach bug.  But he was feeling better and winter vacation was beginning early!

I decided to start the day off with a breakfast that speaks love to my dear ones.  So that meant meat for my man (and Lydia) and pancakes for Ethan.  

Okay....it's supposed to be a heart made of bacon and hearts in the pancakes.  Maybe not perfect, but I don't think anyone complained.

See!?!

Oopps.  Not the best shot.

Of course before we sat down to this lovely meal, I had a choice to make.  A glass of orange juice was lost and I could have spoiled the tone of the day.  I chose to remember that the day is about showing real love- the love Jesus would show us.  The kind that bends down and wipes up messes and restores with grace.  

Todd and I had decided we would celebrate Valentine's Day later after a friend came to visit us and could watch the kids.  I also asked him if we could take the money spent on flowers (just this year- NOT an always thing) and use it for something in the house.  So today wasn't really going to be a celebration day.  The snow that had made today a snow day needed to be cleaned up.  So after lunch we showed love by helping each other.  I shoveled and roof raked and found our lost mailbox.  Todd snowplowed.  

We also decided to have Ethan's buddy and his sister over to play and have dinner so maybe their parents could have a little time together.  We figured after the kids went home and ours went to bed we would maybe take a night time snowshoe walk (with a full moon if it cleared up!) or stay in and watch a movie.  Either way we'd spend some time together.  And I'd made a cherry pie and homemade ice cream!

As soon as I brought the kids home I didn't feel too well.  Neither did Todd.  Yup.  Things weren't going to go as planned.  We ended up with the stomach bug for two.  Praying my way through the night we took care of the kids, put ours to bed, and then spent a pretty miserable night.  It was the stuff you don't see in the Hallmark movies, but the stuff of real love.  

So this Valentine's Day, I am rejoicing in a Savior that gives me a new heart and transforms me so that I don't get as worked up about spilled orange juice.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve my family and show them love by the things I cook, the floor I wipe up, and things I do.  I love my husband who tackles the snow bank at the end of the drive and walks with me either on moonlit nights or stays with me when I'm not at my best.  It wasn't the Valentine's Day I'd planned, but it was a day of true love.

P.S.  All are feeling better.  Maybe we'll actually get to eat the pie and ice cream now!

 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  I Corinthians 13:4-7