A man stops off at a florist and brings his wife a single rose in the evening, a girl makes her lover a lemon pie with just the degree of tartness he likes, a wife makes arrangements for her husband to take the caribou-hunting trip he thought he'd never afford--these are not the goo of sweet emotion, they are the stuff that comes from resolution and determination, and they are strong mortar.
~ Alan Loy McGinnis
I'm going to take a break from the look into the past that I've been doing this month, and instead, tonight I want to record some things about our celebration here in the present.
Jeff and I didn't go the traditional route this year for our Valentine's celebration. He didn't give me a dozen red roses, we didn't go out for dinner, there was no candlelight or soft music or slow dancing. However, the "strong mortar" of our day of love included this: Jeff making taquitos for our dinner, which we ate here at home surrounded by our sons and my parents, the only music being the sometimes-too-loud voices of our boys and the only soft glow coming from the woodstove where my mother built up the fire after supper. We didn't dance, but we did talk; and not only our evening conversation but also the occasional exchanges we had throughout the day, whether by telephone or email, were characterized by the love and respect which we have so determinedly chosen in our marriage (but sometimes fail at, regrettably). All of this adds up to...
...a fairly ordinary evening. Wonderful, even in its normalcy.
But there was this... ;-)
Jeff had arranged to have a male quartet show up at our house shortly after he got home from work so they could deliver a card and one red rose and so they could serenade me. Oh my goodness gracious! It was so delightful and funny to me; I could hardly stop laughing. Jeff told me later how red my cheeks turned. I'm sure they did! What a memory-making moment!
It reminded me so much of the time when we were at Camp-of-the-Woods for a week of vacation with my parents, back in the summer of '96, back when we weren't sure what the future held for us. At one of the meals, Jeff arranged for our server, who was also a talented violinist, to serenade us at our table; and of course, that wonderful surprise made my cheeks turn bright red, too, as the whole dining room full of camp guests turned to watch us. Oy! At least tonight, I didn't have too much of an audience to observe me blushing. (Until now...) ;-)
Besides the love of my husband, I was intensely aware of and grateful for the love of my four sons today. In my short post from earlier today, I already mentioned what stood out to me from David; but here are special moments from the other boys:
~ Shav: he was sitting on the living room floor this evening after supper; and since it was late, he was tired and was kind of in a daze...Jeff was trying to get his attention, but Shav was ignoring him!...but when I said, "Shav," he turned his face towards me right away and flashed me a gorgeous smile...that boy loves his mama ;-)
~ Josiah: I happened to be in Walmart this afternoon, picking up cottage cheese to go with our taquitos (Jeff says the right way to eat taquitos is to dip them in cottage cheese) ;-)...while there, I got a huge (almost half a pound) Hershey Kiss for each of the three older boys...when Josiah got home from SVCC practice and saw that waiting on his plate at the table, his eyes got big, his voice got excited, and he thanked me sincerely and profusely for the unexpected gift :)
~ Tobin: he was with me when I got the Hershey Kisses, and he was eagerly looking forward to eating his after supper...it didn't take him long to finish his food tonight!...when he unwrapped the chocolate, he didn't hesitate, but bit right in, starting with the skinny point at the top...
...Jeff jokingly asked him for a bite, and Tobin looked at him with a glance that seemed to say, "What?? Are you nuts? No way am I gonna share this thing with you!"... ;-)
...at this point, he already had chocolate between his teeth; but before long, he would have it on his face all around his mouth and ALL over his hands...that's nothing a little soap and water couldn't take care of though...
...besides Tobin's enjoyment of his chocolate, what really stands out in my memory today when I think of him is how, at the dinner table, without any prompting, he said to me, "I love you this so much," as he held his arms out to the side, and then he said again, "I love you this so much," as he stretched his arms above his head, and then he finished with "I love you this so much," as he reached out as if to wrap me in a big hug...back when Josiah was a toddler, I started doing that with him, especially in response to his frequent "no's"...when Josiah got stuck in a "no" kick, I would ask him, "Do you know how much I love you?"...his response would, of course, be, "No," and then I could say, "No? Well, then, I'll have to tell you!" and begin with the "I love you this much" routine, going through the three statements with accompanying arm motions and ending with a big squish hug...I've done that with all the boys, but Tobin is the one who currently enjoys that the most...I enjoy his addition of the word "so" to my customary phrase.
Shav, I love you this so much.
Tobin, I love you this so much.
David, I love you this so much.
Josiah, I love you this so much.
Jeff, I love you this so much!!!!!
2 comments:
This is so neat! I think Jeff was really creative. I think one of the singers may be a guy that goes to our church. He sings in a barbershop quartet. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see your reaction in person. I'm glad for the video as next best.
I'm glad we aren't the only ones who occasionally let our kids indulge in a ridiculous amount of candy (or popcorn, or something like that). However, yesterday was not such a day. They've had such puny appetites lately, and neither Paul nor Hannah could eat even 2 pieces of Valentine's candy their Aunt Julia made for them. (And they weren't even big pieces.) Anyway, there will be better days.
Sally, you are right about your brother from church! They had 3 teams and I made sure that the one that would come to our house would have him on it. (He is the one that told me about the opportunity to have them come and sing.) Tell him he is online here if you get a hold of him before I do!
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