Happy Valentine's Day!

To all my readers out there, Happy Valentine's Day! I found an article that explored possible origins of today's "holiday" and found it quite interesting. Check it out if you have time: http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day.

In honor of Valentine's Day, I had a blast creating some homemade Valentines for friends, along with baking my mother-in-law's famous recipe for Monster Cookies. Do-it-yourself (DIY) paper goods are always much more laborious and time-intensive than they should be but I'm usually impressed with the outcome. Some pink and red medium-weight card stock sure goes a long way if you have a pair of scissors, some pretty ribbon, scraps of doilies and glue. It also doesn't hurt if you are gifted in calligraphy for the lettering and signing of the completed cards. I thought this very thing, in fact, as I meticulously practiced by-hand various calligraphy fonts I found online. Yes, calligraphy is an art that takes time to master. To anyone who receives one of my handcrafted calligraphy cards, I hope you will give me some extra grace!

Besides creating cards and cookies, I had the privilege of being escorted to my favorite seafood restaurant by my loving husband last night. We wined and dined (minus the wine because it was too pricey) on crab cakes with garlic mashed potatoes and good ol' fashioned fish 'n' chips featuring fresh halibut. The backdrop to our meal was nothing short of impressive, since Elliot's Oyster House is right on Puget Sound. Thanks Ken for sharing a really nice evening with me!

And to my friends and family, whatever you do today, I hope you feel loved and encouraged. May the words of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 spur you on in sharing Christ's love with others: 

"Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails..."