My Valentines

This guy. We've had 20 Valentine's Days together now. Things are different than they were way back then. Then it was all about fancy restaurants and one-upping the previous year. Now, we share the day with our little Valentines (love takes all shapes and sizes); we celebrate family love instead of romantic love, although there is something to be said for romantic love that grows deep and strong and steady even after the excitement and thrill diminishes.

This year there were lovely flowers and dinner at my favorite local Thai restaurant.

But then... in addition... my Farmboy gave me the most romantic gift I could possibly imagine.

He gave me the sunset.

On a section of our Western horizon, where trees used to block the sun all winter long, he carved out a path, so those elusive setting-sun's beams can reach my eyes.

Summer Break: Week Three

The week started out so stinking hot it made every part of me hurt. Not really, I don't suffer from chronic pain, so I don't want to make light of that statement. But heat and Beth do not mix well. And since the heat comes so rarely to our part of the world, most people don't have air conditioning. I make do by hanging quilts over all of the West-facing windows, basically turning the house into as dark and cool of a cave as possible. It always works well for the first day or two, but by the third and fourth day of a heat wave, it's pretty much impossible to bring the house down under 80 degrees. Which does not make me a happy girl.

Enter the new swimming pool. Which is still so cold from all of that well water, that thirty minutes soaking in it chilled me to the bone. Afterward, sitting in an 80 degree house, it took 3 hours for my feet to warm back up. It feels good knowing that I now have a legitimate coping mechanism for heat waves. :D

Other than trying to stay cool, there was VBS to take the kids to, and the usual errands to run. The Farmboy took the week off and started tearing the nearly-20-year-old deck off of the back of the house. We ate in the front yard almost every night and tried to relax as much as possible. I even dialed my work back quite a bit, only taking two runs into town to mail orders, and only answering the most pressing emails.

I ate the first blueberry of the season and showed up to band practice wearing the same shoes as the others (minus one) (yay for Converse!). There were two giant Jackfruits at the local Grocery, which impressed the kids. And I got to end the week with a tea date with my Mama and two Sisters and one highly squeezable Nephew.

17 Years

It's not every day that you get to celebrate such a thing.

17 years of marriage isn't a small feat.

You make the commitment to have and to hold with romance in the air and stars in your eyes. But the daily fulfilling of those vows is sometimes much more practical and straight forward. We chose each other then; that was easy. We daily choose each other now, by doing all of the little things that demonstrate love.

Love starts with passion and excitement and grows deeper with respect shown and care given.

The love I feel for my Farmboy today makes that love back then seem like a flighty thing. He has stood by me as my protector and provider and number one supporter through so many phases of life; those we endured and those we sailed through with aplomb.

And how did we celebrate? We went to a concert... with friends. Was it romantic? Yes, it really was. Because there's something to say about the friendships that we develop together as a couple. And this particular concert was extra special because it was Ray LaMontagne, my very favorite and not so much his. But he bought me hard cider and a tshirt and held my hand, and didn't bat an eyelash when I wanted to walk forward to snap some pictures for awhile. He just stayed with our chairs and welcomed me back with a smile and a "did you get any good ones?".

Yes, actually, I got a very good one. And he's a keeper.

Lately

It has been unseasonably warm around here lately. We went for an entire week without lighting a fire in the woodstove. We did still have to use our central heating, but it was *just* warm enough that a fire would get the house too hot too quickly. I missed having a fire. Which is why I was happy for the rain and wind today.

I have finally put the last remnants of Christmas away, and even did a fair amount of organizing in my office/catchall room over the weekend. Somehow it is so much easier to relax and breathe when there isn't a massive mess hanging above ones' head (literally... the office is upstairs).

I also had my hair cut for the first time since July, and had someone out to tune and assess repair needs for my piano for the first time in probably 20 years... there were a few moments of thinking it was going to fall apart under the tuner's hands. What relief when it was discovered that there was a row of loose screws that tightened things back up nicely.

We are tentatively holding onto good health, with just a little sniffle or sore throat here and there. After our November full of doctor's appointments, I'll take a normal old head cold any day. The warmer days aren't helping in the health department though; along with way-too-early blooming flowers and bugs galore, there have also been a corresponding blooming of allergy symptoms. I'm praying for a good cold snap to settle everything down again. You East-coasters can feel free to blow some of that snow our way any time. Our landscape is very confused.

I have fun things to announce and show later this week (fingers crossed), so stay tuned!