Saturday, February 16, 2013

on love & valentines

So this week kind of sucked, and we've already had a recurrence of our, ahem, head-scratcher of a problem. HOWEVER, exhausted as I still am, I must say that there were actually a lot of highlights to the week as well. And maybe it's the three day weekend stretching out before me, but the good is actually starting to outweigh the bad.


On Monday, we celebrated Andy's birthday by going out to dinner with his folks. I hit up Crumbs for some cookie dough cupcakes (his favorite) and patted myself on the back for coming up with a gift that actually surprised him! A visit to our local cheese shop is most definitely in order :)



I'd had an idea about what I wanted to do for my class valentine cards more than a year ago (long before Pinterest exploded with similar concepts, but hey, so it goes). I chopped up a bunch of old crayons (which I rescued from the trash pile back in September) . . . 


. . . and melted them down into hearts (thanks for the mold, Target dollar bins!) . . .


. . . then packaged them in sweet little glassine bags with a handwritten note that said, Valentine, you make life colorful! (The best part of this project, apart from the fact that the kids were actually, surprisingly psyched to receive them, was that it catapulted me into another, beyond-awesome project. I'm not quite ready to share details yet, as I don't want to jinx anything, but suffice it to say it's JUST the sort of thing I've always wanted to do!)



There was, of course, plenty of coffee involved. Because there is always coffee. 

Always. 



On Valentine's Day itself, I tried to practice a little of Anne Lamott's kind of love. While walking home from the train, I randomly found myself humming "The Servant Song," and it occurred to me that it describes exactly what I feel about the nature of love. For me, these are the words that speak of true love:


Will you let me be your servant,

let me be as Christ to you?

Pray that I might have the grace

to let you be my servant, too.



We are pilgrims on a journey,
we are trav’lers on the road.

We are here to help each other

walk the mile and bear the load.



I will hold the Christ-light for you

in the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.



I will weep when you are weeping,
when you laugh I'll laugh with you.

I will share your joy and sorrow

'til we've seen this journey through.



When we sing to God in heaven,
we shall find such harmony,

born of all we've known together

of Christ's love and agony.

Will you let me be your servant,
let me be as Christ to you?

Pray that I might have the grace

to let you be my servant, too.



Yep -- tears in my eyes just from typing that. I'm going to hope that a group like Mumford & Sons does a version I can actually listen to without cringing. I tried to find something decent online and completely failed.

Happy weekend, folks. I got a new coat yesterday (since most of mine are in bags), and it's time I go wear it out :)