One year at Valentines day we were broke, really broke, but Thomas used his creativity to come up with something great for me ! So, if you haven’t done anything for your lover yet(shame shame), maybe you could do this.

                  Thomas wrote 15 reasons why he loved me on tiny slips of paper, rolled them up and took them to bi-lo. He asked the ladies doing balloons to place these little slips of paper inside the balloons before blowing them up.

                          Well, first of all the bi-lo ladies fell in love with him! He brought me that bouquet of balloons, and I thought “ok….great”, but then he gave me a pin and said, “you have to pop each one”. I could not believe that he had taken the time to do that. Its one of my favorite memories.

 Other inexpensive ideas….roper mtn(planetarium)

make dinner together(without the kids)

        write a song(and perform it, no matter how bad you might be)

For those of you (men) who do not acknowledge valentines day….don’t think of it as a commercial, corny hallmark kind of holiday. Look at it as a chance to show the person you share your life with how much you love them. ok….I am done. My love language is gifts, can you tell ?

 of my house cleaning obsession. I think. When I first started working, I nearly drove myself crazy trying to keep everyhing together. But, as each day goes by, I am relaxing bit by bit. Its not easy, but I am realizing that I have to have priorities. It feels pretty good.

                   Its just like with Jesus, we spend so much time getting dressed for the party, and worrying about looking and sounding just right, that by the time we get there, he is already gone. HE just wants us….its more like a pizza party, come as you are, than a formal dinner. Is anyone following me here ?Jesus is into comfort, thus the name….the comforter.

 I know , my mind goes in a million different directions, but at least my house is dirty !Thats a start.

Its the power of life, the power of love.

both spoken, and unspoken words that pierce my heart

you were there, here, in the abyss before all of this

you saved me from your tomb, knew me in my mother’s womb

its the power of life, the power of love

you were there, here, from the start

you see ….I was formed in your heart

I don’t know why I put on makeup to go to church. Because, most sundays,I end up crying. I don’t know why. It’s sort of a litmus test. When I hear the word of GOD and it strikes a chord, the waterworks start. I have heard lots of encouraging words, but when someone gives me a prophetic word from the heart of GOD…the ugly cry starts. Oh well.

                This past sunday, Rich was giving me a prohetic word of knowledge without even knowing it. In our household, we have labeled each other without really being aware of the weight it carried. I took each child and asked their forgiveness for believing that they were a certain way and that was that. Stubborn, annoying, lazy, dishonest , mean…..these are not labels that the enemy put on them, there the labels I put on them. Sad. Thats how it made me feel, sad and hopeful. Hopeful, that I will label them the way the Lord sees them :strong, powerful, lovely, creative….perfect.  I will handle them with care, because thats how my daddy handles me.

In all the years that I’ve had children and been taking them to birthday parties, THIS has never happened before…..5 parties on the same saturday ! They are blissfully ignorant to the fact that I have to say no to some of these. I relinquished the control, and let them choose which parties they wanted to go to. And choose, they did. Now, I am left with the task of buying gifts and still having grocery money !!

           I recently heard someone say about the economic crisis, ” all the money is still around, it has just changed hands” So true, and God knows where it is and where it needs to be. So, I am going on with my life, trusting him and buying birthday gifts, like there is no tomorrow ! peace.