Glimpses of our Valentine's Day 2012

7 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." I John 4:7-12

I went to bed so stressed last night. We have had ongoing illnesses and trips to the ER with croup, etc. Now our precious Lilly Faith has an ear infection. So, I went to bed thinking about all the chaos, the loads of laundry, the school work that needed attending to today, the fact that the whole house needed straightening, and the fact that I really had not planned out our Valentine's day very well.....as well as everything else on our plate for this week. Well, I prayed and asked the Lord to quiet my heart and grant me sleep. "For he grants sleep to those he loves." - Ps 127:2 Sleep finally came, but not uninterrupted as the baby was wrestles and fussy. Regardless, we got up this morning, and I asked the Lord to please help me accomplish all I should today and to help me to make Valentine's as special as I could for my family. Even Annagrace came down and asked why the table wasn't like Valentine's? Well, that did not make me feel like MOM OF THE YEAR, but I assured the children that I did know it was Valentine's, the day was not over, and Mama was going to try to do some fun things with them. Honestly, it is frustrating to me that I did not have a fun filled, special day all planned out, but we have been trying to squeeze fun into all the other chaos swarming around us today. Here are some of the things we did:

*Most of us wore red or pink

*Lauren made her first ever Whoopie Pies (from a cake mix)

*Play Dough hearts

*The littles made Lady Bug Valentine's frames (Kits from Hobby Lobby)

*We did also do some school and some cleaning up, and I browned a huge thing of beef before it went bad in the fridge.

So, praise the Lord His mercies are new every morning.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

I am thankful He has helped me with our "not so perfectly planned out" Valentine's Day. It really is not about perfection at all, but I tend to forget that sometimes. Later today Daddy and I are going to give each of our little Valentines a small gift and maybe read a story about love. Perhaps "Guess How Much I Love You?" or something similar. Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

p.s. Also, the beautiful roses are from my WONDERFUL VALENTINE SWEETHEART who is at work right now. :)