Served With Love

Valentine's Day didn't turn out as I had planned it in my mind.  No, not at all.  But I can say that the Lord ordered the minutes of each day this week, including Valentine's Day!  I had to step back a minute, breathe, and remember that people are more important than preparations or the actual event.

That being said, I did take some pictures of--yep, the food.  Haha, not a single person was captured by my camera yesterday.  But this post is a reminder to me--and to you--that we're here as a vessel for God to declare His glory to people.  The lack of people pictures also means that I was too busy talking to them to take pictures of them!  And that's a good thing.  :)

My mom called me late morning to see if she and Dad could come at 2:00 instead of closer to dinner so that she and I could go over to Kohl's for a little shopping.  Yikes!  My four-hour fiasco with salad dressing yesterday meant that now I was busy making dinner rolls, getting the meat in the crock pot, and baking cookies.   I told her that they could go ahead and come early, then went back to trying to get everything done before they arrived.

It all worked out, the cookies were cooling on the rack, the rolls didn't rise as much as I had hoped but were edible, and the meat was cooking nicely once I realized I forgot to add spices and bouillon to the crock!  Sigh.  Mom and I went shopping, and although I wasn't expecting to find anything, I found a great dress, a couple of summer tops, and a pair of workout shorts.  Plus this new coat:

The most exciting part of the trip was that Mom had a 30% off coupon, and most everything I found was on clearance!!  Once we were back home, I set about trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing food-wise.  Thomas lit the candles on the dining room table...

...and I got the salads ready to serve.  That silly dressing I made yesterday was decent with the lettuce and various berries I added, but I don't think I'll rave about it in a blog post.  The salads sure did look pretty!

For our main course, we enjoyed beef tenderloin with gravy and organic crimini mushrooms, garlic-lemon mashed potatoes, Normandy vegetables (the kitchen help overcooked them but they were still good), and whole-wheat dinner rolls.

We shared great conversation and laughter throughout dinner, then shared more throughout dessert.  Danny served us coffee and tea, and we nibbled our Scotch shortbread cookies and talked and talked some more.

Valentine's Day = family + love + laughter.


Back to life,
Christine

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