The Way to a Man's Heart

They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and if that is true, I better be all up in Josh's heart. :) I spent Valentine's Day in the kitchen. Really. I didn't realize that until I was looking through some pictures. But the walllpaper doesn't lie, and most of our festivities happened in the kitchen. I'll show you.

Sunday  night we had a Valentine's Party at church so I spent pretty much my whole afternoon baking cupcakes, making "pink" dip,  and fixing ham and cheese croissants. It was actually really fun. Josh had to make a hospital visit, and Sarah and Eli were over at the church for an activity and Kate was supposed to be laying down. For the most part I had the kitchen to myself and I never realized how peaceful cooking is when you don't have people all up in your business. :)  The kids did make it home in time to decorate the cupcakes and that was fun. I was teaching discipleship training that night so I left Josh and the kids to transport all of the food. I so enjoy teaching and I won't lie, after teaching 4 year olds to 2nd graders on Wednesday nights, teaching adults is sooooo easy. :)  But I love those kids on Wednesday nights and speaking of them, we made this  banner last week.

Each heart has a part of 1 Corinthians 13 on it. The first heart says, "Love is" and the rest say, "Patient", "Kind", so on and so forth. This was a last minute idea that I had and I was soooo thankful one of our sweet ladies brought these hearts in. They are the foam kind with the cutouts as opposed to my idea of pink construction paper that the kids would cut out themselves and glue or tape to the ribbon. We would still be there, y'all.

Anyway, we had a great time that night. It was all finger foods and I could seriously live off of chips and dip and chicken salad sandwiches. And the desserts were to die for! However, they weren't all finger food. There were some pies. But let me tell you, we ate them too! That reminded me of a time many, many moons ago not long after Josh surrendered to preach. Josh wasn't preaching yet, we were still just members of a church. But I made the mistake of making key lime pies because the recipe I had would make two. I took one for a finger food event and one to give to a family that was moving. Well, the kitchen lady informed me my pie was not finger food and would not serve it! Then, the family told me they wouldn't be able to travel with theirs. I was ready to tell everybody where they could put those pies! I know, that is so not preacher's wife like at all. I promise I didn't actually say that. Out loud. Oh well, we had a lot of pie to eat. And I now ONLY take finger foods to finger food events. Live and learn. :)

After the eating the kids played some hopscotch and I love this picture because I caught a genuine Kate smile, which is very tricky these days.

I got this pic of my girls before the party and it was equally miraculous. And in the kitchen of course. :)

I told y'all that I have somehow become a morning person and I have also reached the conclusion that breakfast is my new love language. I love making breakfast. Who knew?

I was so dern proud of those heart shaped pancakes. Y'all have to understand, it took me about 5 years of marriage to learn how to make any kind of pancakes! I won't lie, I totally became Paula Deen. Those things were made in enough butter to squeeze a whale through a straw. I also had to spray the cookie cutter with butter spray to get them out. These will definitely have to be a once a year thing. :) Those little stuffed animals I got for the kids were really struggling. Their heads are too big for their bodies and they did not want to sit up. I could relate. I was a litte tired. When I got back from taking the kids to school Josh was doing the dishes. I tell ya, if the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, then the way to my heart is by doing the dishes! Especially on this morning. Between yesterday afternoon and breakfast I had literally used every pot and pan in my kitchen!

We had a low key day. Josh and I are planning to celebrate on Friday. The kids had a big day at school. They had a "Glow Dance" during P.E. where the kids played Just Dance on the Wii. It had been the talk of this house all last week. I had learned that Sarah had been asked to go by two boys! She said they ended up not having to have partners (Praise the Lord!), but she did eat lunch with one of the boys and his Mom. Already meeting the parents! I am so not ready for this. Eli told us Sunday that he still hadn't picked a Valentine. He told us he would just wait and pick fast so he didn't have to think about it. Then, when I asked him about it yesterday he told me the name of a girl and said he asked her because she was the only girl close enough to talk to. We are definitely going to have to have some talks before it is time for him choose a wife!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

All in all it was a great day. For supper Josh grilled pork chops and I made loaded potatoes, sweet peas and corn muffins. A new episode of Castle came on. I'm tellin' ya, the excitement around here could do you in!

It was exactly what I wanted though and I realized last night that 19 years ago Josh and I shared our first Valentine's Day together in Ms. Barfield's fifth grade class. We didn't speak to each other or anything, but we were in the same room together. :)

                                       Me and my Valentine. Yep, we're in the kitchen. :)

I hope that you all had a great Valentine's Day and felt very loved!