Meal prep, led by Daddy

I have injured myself by two blows to the head within one week.  It's a long, dumb story involving milk crates and van doors and isn't worth telling, especially when you're in pain and suffering from a concussion and can barely put two words together in any way that makes sense.  Suffice it to say that I'm a little less efficient than usual, and my lovely family is taking up some of the slack.  Tonight? 

Meal prep, led by Daddy:

 

I'm not sure what we're having, but with garlic, onions, wine, and exotic oils and vinegars from Savor the Olive, it has to be good!

"Instant Festive"

Today is my birthday, and this morning my acts-of-service-love-language self was overwhelmed by the food spread waiting for me when I rounded the corner to the dining room after our morning gathering as a family.  The food was delicious and the company delightful, but I realized that half of what is so special for me was the fact that it was pulled off without my involvement at all.  I didn't have to plan it.  I didn't have to shop for it.  I didn't have to cook it or execute it in any way.  And it was beautiful.  It was delicious.  It was festive.

As I've contemplated what made it feel so instantly festive as I came around the corner, I've come up with several things.  Some are not surprising.  One--of course!--is the fact that there was a candle.  Candles create "instant festive," in my mind.  I had a special china plate and cup and saucer.  Nothing quite says, "You're special" like bringing out the good dishes! But another thing that I think creates "instant festive"--and this surprised me!--is a pedestal bowl.


I absolutely love my little pedestal bowl!  We bought it just before Thanksgiving for $10 and the local TJ Maxx Home Goods store.  I wanted something to house the tossed salad (yes, tossed salad) my sister-in-law had requested with the Thanksgiving feast.  (I made a layered salad in the miniature trifle bowl, and it was delicious and beautiful!)  For the Christmas season, we re-purposed it as a centerpiece decoration on the dining room table with colorful glass ball ornaments of different sizes in it.  And now here it was, on my birthday, housing an exotic-looking fruit salad.  Festive.  It instantly added class and importance to the table, in my silly mind.

The breakfast was delicious.  There are plans for lunch out with my father and kids for lunch.  Tonight my husband and I will have dinner together at a favorite local restaurant.  Clearly, we celebrate around here around the table!

And if there's a festive bowl involved, all the better!

Acts of Service

I have had graduate coursework to complete since I enrolled in the classes last summer, but the busyness of homeschooling and life kicked in before I finished, and I've been slowly pecking away at them all semester in the stolen moments I could find amid our gloriously busy life.

This day was the absolute, "I must finish these papers and get them to the instructor" day.  My husband set me and my trusty laptop up in the guest room, where I was to shut the door and not come out until they were done.

This is what I found that he had set up to be waiting for me in there:

In case you can't quite see it in the larger picture, I'll give you a closer look:

Yep!  Candles and tea!  How wonderful it is to be really known!

And, in addition to feeling very known, I felt very, very loved and supported.  You see, I'm an "Acts of Service" love-language girl, and it is sometimes ridiculous to me how happy I am and how loved I feel when someone does something for me.  And it doesn't have to be thoughtful and special, either (like candles and tea and a quiet room to do the must-do work).  It can be something as mundane as changing the light bulb before I get to it... vaccuming the floor you noticed was a mess... cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen that I didn't quite get to yet...

Yep, it is pretty easy to make an acts-of-service person feel loved... just look around and do something that needs to be done.  She'll melt like the gift-receiver-love-language girl will melt over flowers... or the quality-time girl will melt if you'll just sit with her while you both read... or the physical-touch girl if you hold her hand for no apparent reason... or the words-of-affirmation girl if you write her a love letter.

Don't get me wrong!  If you do any of those things for me, I'll feel special--but not as special as if you clean out that plugged drain when you notice you're standing in water so I don't have to.  Silly, yes!  And I often watch in wonder at my own emotional reaction to acts of service, thinking how ridiculous it is!  But it is really quite undeniably true.

If you aren't familiar with the Five Love Languages, I'd highly recommend that you read about them.  It may just transform how you love each other!