Every Day a Valentine

Love is….

A fiery sunset that you watch together

A road trip full of adventure and laughter

Making sand footprints for each other to follow to the heart drawn on the beach

Staring into one another’s eyes and feeling like you could jump into their liquid blue and swim forever

Giggling into the wee hours of the morning in bed

Cooking together

Coffee first thing in the morning

Still blushing and butterflies, when he tells you that you look amazing after a sweaty work out

Back rubs and French kisses…and then….. sleep

Summer hikes that lead to skinny-dipping

Silence, but still hearing one another’s hearts

Jumping off the couch, to run outside into a summer rain.  Just to dance in the yard

Sobbing in the shower when you know his flight just took off and you miss him…already

Finding the one person that loves everything you love, and enjoys everything you enjoy

Sweaty hand holding at the movies

Dinner and candles on the floor, by the fireplace

Our children

Your favorite flower, shipped from Europe, because they are out of season in the U.S.  for a special day

Hidden surprises

Sticky notes found around the house

Laughing until your stomach hurts

Food fights

Taking the road less traveled, together
Putting the others needs in front of your own
Extending grace

That perfect nesting place for your forehead when you need a good cry

Slippery showers together

Learning something new together

Forgiving one another for being flawed

Being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slower to become angry

Praying together

Knowing that just around the corner, could be the adventure of a lifetime…and walking around the corner, to hit it head on

A Daddy that will stay up late, tired, after a trip, to rub our daughters feet

Staying up to watch a sunrise

Love making, with reckless abandon

Surprise dinner dates
Forgiving the unforgivable

Someone knowing you almost better than you know yourself

Knowing the right words of comfort to say, when you’ve had a hard day

Trust to the depths of your soul

Flirting with one another

Secrets that you would share with no one else

Being a good spiritual partner

Being spontaneous

Touches that set your skin on fire

Looking at one another like you are the only two people on the planet…. and feeling that way

Inside jokes

Lifting one another up, when you are in the deep end

Silliness

Not caring what anyone else thinks of your passion

Being best friends

Love is: exciting, unconditional, soft, vulnerable, forever

It is: comfortable, sexy, secure, fun and sometimes scary

It’s knowing that this person has walked into your life and made you realize why it never worked out with anyone else.

Knowing wholeheartedly, a love that endures forever

~The word - love - appears 310 times in 280 verses in the Bible.  There’s a reason for this

It’s important

It’s vital

It’s essential

~~Instead of one day…shouldn’t every day be Valentines?

A Little Piece of Central Park in Idaho

My husband is out of town.  It’s like a shift in the Universe.  My schedule has to mold into a different shape.  My partner in crime, no longer here for a few days to help out.  My teammate has left the field.

My independence comes out after the initial changes.  I soon realize that I can do what I want with these few days.  Eat popcorn and sherbet for dinner in bed with my snuggly cub, workout when I feel like it, monopolize the DVR shows, stay up until dawn reading without feeling like I might disturb him with my book light.  My workouts vary.  Missing a class this morning, only to get in a fabulous long run.  I work out hard, mad with his travel, and then hit that runners high, feeling on top of the World and then into almost tears from my achy heart.  It’s only a couple of days.

It is a muscle, the heart.  It feels a little weak and torn down when his office sits empty.

My morning coffee, cold in the pot, and not on my night stand first thing.

The trash…oh yah, put the trash on the curb.  I think I hear the truck.

Will I have to GET GAS in my car?  The horror!

Did I feed the dogs?

Things I think about on my run.  Then I let the mental list go.  And just run!

Today I ran, thinking about running in Central Park, where he is.  I am running hard.  Hills.  Angry, New York City, music pumping through my IPod.  I felt strong.  Imagine I am running in a Nike commercial.  I am drenched in sweat and heat and humidity.  My legs become heavy, tight with tired muscles, and I push just a tiny bit more.  I love when my run feels like that!!  I love when I can visualize so much that I can hear the traffic, smell the city.  And when I stop, my body is completely used up.  With nothing left.  

Now, I have an entire day to my self.  Girls are gone, Grandma is picking up today from school for a little celebration!  This is the unhinged moment, because as much as I miss the G, I also adore these days as well.

Showered off of sweat after my Central Park run, there is silence.  Absolute silence.  Time to read, bake some goodies, try out some new recipes, have some great prayer time, talk to an old friend, walk my Yorkie, lay on my living room floor at my back door when the sun is just right, streaming through the window to heat my skin, take a bubble bath.

A whole day of me!

I do sneak a few peaks into his office….

A Carpe Diem Run

YES, it was one of those days!!  One of those winter days in Coeur d'Alene that we all love.  All look forward to.  After snow, and grey, comes the sun.  And it was stunning.  Six mile run with a perfect blue sky, and that gorgeous ball of yellow and orange reaching down out of the sky to kiss our cheeks.  Fingers long with warmth.  A seize the day, seize the moment kind of day.....and we did!!

~“Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart.” 
― Erma Bombeck