30-umpteen years ago he stood at an altar and made an awful lot of promises to me about faithfulness and love in sickness and in health, through good times and bad. There is no way either of us could ever actually have comprehended the bends and twists and bumps in life’s roads. But those made-in-innocence-and-passion proclamations are turning out, one day at a time.
It isn’t so much that he promised me then, on a day of breathless anticipation, but that he keeps making promises, writing our future with the words he says to me, the things he does for me. And I know I can believe him because of all the years and all the love and all the ways he has quietly, but oh-so-faithfully held my heart, covered my brokenness, cheered me on to my best successes and been so very true in love.
There were obstacles. Things could have gone differently. But…He chose me. He married me. He keeps choosing me and the embers glow with white hot love, stronger as the years increase. He is my lover, my husband, my truest and most trusted friend. He is my heart and he is my home.
He is my Valentine.
My Dave, I am yours and you are mine.
“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame.” Song of Solomon 8.6 NLT
May you love and be loved so, my friends and family. <3
I got to see all my loves who were not in Honduras on Valentine’s Day. What a bunch of smile-bringers!
I may smack Martha Stewart in the chops.
I was innocently standing in line at WalMart, flipping through Martha’s latest magazine, when I saw the cutest cookies ever. They were sugar cookie hearts glazed in all the colors of traditional conversation candy hearts. I read the caption beside the photo that said you could just put red food color on a wet paper towel and use stampers to print the messages.
They were so simple – supposedly. So lovely. I decided I would do it – all the colors, all the conversation-heart sayings. All for the ones I love. I baked the cookies-on-sticks recipe, which truly works for bouquets and is amazingly delicious. I have shared it here, before.
The glaze is just water and powdered sugar and the tiniest bit of food color. The first batch was so runny that the glaze just poured out all over the place – very little left on the cookie. So, I thickened some of the glaze up and piped an outline on each of the cookies. Soupy at first, it starts hardening in exactly 4.21 seconds. Which-I did not realize until I had squished some blue glaze onto each of the cookies I was going to make blue, thinking I could spread it evenly in a minute. I could not. The blue were blotchy. The red was too red. It took until I got to the pink to finally get the consistency right and have the “flooding” technique down. You go around and around the cookie, flooding it with the glaze.
I decided not to do all the colors of the conversation heart candies. I couldn’t bear it, after all.
I did try the stamping technique and it worked OK and may have been better if I had spent more than $1 for the alphabet stamp set at Michael’s. I didn’t measure, however, nor try to space evenly-so mine did NOT look like Martha’s.
In the future, I shall employ my normal cookie decorating techniques.
For the love.
What makes us do these things? Bake and decorate and try new things? Because we love. We love cookies. And we love each other. Sometimes we even love Martha.
Did you get sweets from your sweet?…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Love.
pictured: Hunter and Gavin upside-down; Guini in her pink pj’s; Averi decked out in red and pink; Gemma-a girl and her popcorn; outlined and filled cookies; stamped cookies; a little bouquet for my family.
“…O Lord, my God, with all my heart; I will glorify Your Name forever. For great is Your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths of the grave.” Psalm 86.12b,13 NIV
Our first kiss was like, fireworks ~ angel choirs ~ intoxicating ~ dizzying. I am sorry to tell you I cannot really let you re-live that moment with Dave and I, for it was ours alone. And to talk about it too much would embarrass our children and probably make you blush, but suffice it to say, once our lips met (and many, many times since), I was thoroughly, head-over-heels, giddy, heart-palpitating, screaming inside, flipped out in-love, forever.
And I remember how he reeled me in and made me a Dave-fan for life. I was serious, untrusting, broken in lots of areas. I was ready to try to hold him at arm’s length and test his love, his loyalty – dare him to try and stay. And he? Would playfully and persistently stay close and relentlessly charm and comfort until he could coax a relaxed smile from me – the one that only came because I knew I could count on him for always.
Happy Valentine’s Day, David Allen Rhoades, the love of my life!
You have been a wonderful friend and lover and husband and now an incredible grandfather, too. I sang you a song for Valentine’s Day (click the link below). In retrospect, I should’ve picked something a little easier, perhaps with more like a 3-note range?… I am definately not “up to” a Broadway tune, but it is done now – for all to know:
I will never leave you. I know you too well (through all of life’s stages) to let you go. My head and heart are full of our memories, our life – things no one else can ever share. I love you, Dave.