Love Is . . .

With it being February - - a month famous for its celebration of all things love . . .
I thought it appropriate to ask the following question:

What is love??

Love is helping Mommy make lunch.
Slicing eggs for egg salad sandwiches.
Because it's Bethany's favorite.
And the rest of us show love by dealing with the hard-boiled egg smell in the kitchen so she can enjoy her sandwich. :)

...stirring in celery and relish...

...together!
James is great at showing love through helping.

Love is playing together!
Although we surely have our share (and more than fair) of altercations, the kids really do play well together. Everything ranging from make-believe play to simply playing with the same sorts of toys in close vicinity to each other, I know the kids really enjoy being together.
Even though they fight hard sometimes, I take heart in remembering doing the same with my siblings!
And now that we are all grown, we are all living happy, healthy lives...we love each other, are kind and respectful to one another, and laugh about our days of violent disagreements.
I'll take the trade-off!

Love is caring for our world!
Is it a secret that we love our fruit trees? We somehow seem to have a connection to all foliage on our property here...but the fruit trees are our babies...we tend to them in hopes that they will live happy, fruitful (literally) lives!
We may not do a whole lot outside our little homestead here, but we do our best to care for the beautiful creations we are blessed to be surrounded by. I take great joy in our backyard...our trees...our future garden spot...our soft grass for the kids to play in.
We love our backyard.
Anyway...here JC is doctoring our apple tree. It appears to have some sort of something-or-other that has left it a bit fuzzy and sad. After talking to the nursery, JC got to work caring for it in the way recommended...dish soap and water.

Still fuzzy.
She will pull through though...she's a solid old girl.

The kids were concerned that she was sick.
So they pet her lovingly.

Ben gave kisses.

While we're discussing this...oh how I love our sweet peach tree.
Look at the beautiful blossoms.
Look at them!

Love also sent some beautiful rainfall lately.
Which fed these sparkling buds on the plum tree...see the white blossoms just starting to peek?

Love is art.
I love this picture. James is a perfectionist when it comes to anything he does (more reasons for me to believe he is a small, male version of my sister, Monica!) so it is rare that he even attempts to draw something or color a picture. It sometimes feels like he is uninterested in attempting something that he knows won't turn out just perfect.
So, I LOVE this picture he drew with sidewalk chalk.
It is Woody from Toy Story.
You can see that he has a hat on and a badge right under his simple face.
Two arms, two legs.
Perfection.

Love is making friends.
We live on a cul-de-sac with people whose children are mostly grown. So, in our immediate little neighborhood, not a lot of opportunity for little playmates. But, one of our neighbors has a grandson who sometimes stays there - Michael. (Therefore, our kids think any ten year old child they see anywhere is named Michael.)
The kids have really taken to him and one day he came over to play. He happened to have a friend visiting...a girl we used to teach in primary. The kids just played and basked in the concept of neighborhood friends!

Love is a catnap.
Enough said, really.

Love is glittery valentines.
I decided to make valentines with the kids this year. With glitter.
I don't know why I specifically chose to use glitter except that I just felt like being festive.
I think JC thought I was crazy but he supported my craziness.
Bethany was really excited.
Me too.
I cut some shapes out of construction paper, rounded up some glue, etc. and we got to work!

Bethany was very creative.

Ben was glitter-happy.

And James...was a perfectionist.

They all did a really lovely job and I was quite pleased with our first Valentines Day Involving Glitter.
The kitchen table, after the fact.
(You should have seen the floor...and our faces...and clothes...and fingers...)

Love is sharing excitement!
It is finally time...time to move on completely from the world of baby swings!
Ben has been ready for a big boy swing on our backyard swing set for quite some time.
It finally came down last week.

Everyone gathered around in excitement as JC replaced it.

and Benny Boy loved it.
(and I was a little emotional.)
Yay for Big Boy Ben!

Love is NAPTIME!!!
Naptime. Yes, naptime.
Do you remember what this is? I, for one, had forgotten.
But, on one glorious day in February, my kids reminded me what it was like to have children who took naps.

Wow.

Love is Valentine's Day!!!
Yes, the cliche ol' holiday.
I love it.
I didn't always love it. I never hated it, I never felt like it was just another commercialized holiday. I could enjoy it.
But now I love it. I love celebrating love.
JC and I went out a couple nights prior and celebrated at our usual love-day spot, Flancer's. Then we picked up some frozen custard (which I technically do not eat...shhh, don't tell anyone...) and watched a movie at home. Saturday we delivered some valentines with the kids and that night, JC came home with this:
(I was working on a lesson for Sunday School...hence the stuff in the background...)
Roses, a little bear with chocolate (which I technically don't eat either...shhh...) and Martinellis.
I love girlie, flirty gifts like this!

On Valentine's Day, we made sugar cookies.

We did NOT eat any of the dough.
Did we, James?

My sister, Monica (two mentions in this post...famous...), made a beautiful cake.
She is becoming quite the cake designer. (I don't know if there is an actual title for this...if so, I'm just about certain that is not it...)

Anyway, it was a lovely Valentine's Day.
It's been a lovely month.
I have lovely children, a lovely home, and a lovely sweetheart to spend all of forever with.
Most importantly, I have a lovely knowledge of where all these blessings come from...why I am blessed with one day after another of joy, challenges, opportunities, and LOVE.
Lucky me.