loved

I really like Valentine's Day. Being married makes it more special, but it's always been one of my favorites. It's just a really good opportunity to appreciate the people in your life and love them and be loved by them.

Here, it's a good excuse to do fun and out-of-the-ordinary things, so our weekend resulted in a couple social events (and quite a bit of sugar), which has been great.

The first was last night, when we hosted a couples' Bible study at Betesda. We had a great group and really enjoyed the evening. The study was followed by a snack that Elsa and I had put together - I did bread & pizza dip and brownies & ice cream, and she made some jello and some chocolate-covered strawberries and marshmallows. During the study, Elizabeth and Elliott were kind enough to take care of the kids up at our house, and then they all joined us for food. Although it's never stress-free or fun to stick your neck out and try a new event like this, we did have a nice evening and felt like we got to know some other couples in church better. They are thinking about making it a monthly event, which would be great.

I guess this was the view at our house while we were doing the study (photo credits to Elizabeth)

Our group for the study was us and everyone right here.

Serving up snack

And this morning, Grant so lovingly took the kids to the park and I got to spend a few hours with the sixth-grade girls:

They've been asking regularly when I'll teach them how to make cut-out cookies. I made them with Adrienne last Valentine's Day to give out to the kids as a treat, and also for a school field day sometime last fall. Ever since they've been wanting to get together to make them sometime. So we did that today. They turned out great!

I told Grant later what a delightful thing it was - to be able to give instructions and demonstrate once, and then have them essentially take over the kitchen! Within a few minutes, they were stirring ingredients, mixing up frosting, rolling dough, and cutting out hearts all by themselves - even changing out the cookie sheets in the oven at the appropriate times. I can tell that I'm used to working with toddlers; middle school girls were a fun change - for a morning, anyway. :)

Baking is relatively new to Mexico - traditional Mexican dishes are created on the stove-top and likely originally made over a fire. It's funny - they want to learn to bake and I want to learn how to cook more like them. It's always amazing to me how many delicious things they can make with a very small set of ingredients - rice, beans, tortillas, occasionally meat, tomatoes, onions, peppers, cilantro, and salt. I've made a few attempts, but can never quite get my stuff to taste like theirs.

After they had decorated some for themselves, they each made two for others. Then they went out through the neighborhood in pairs, with instructions to give a cookie to the first people that they saw, no matter who it was. They came back with empty plates and smiles.

One of the girls' moms, who is also our neighbor, brought over some delicious sopes for me and Grant when the girls were almost done, and I just felt so blessed by her. All of these young ladies have mothers who have taught them well. They left my kitchen just as clean as it was when they came, and now, on my table that two hours ago was covered in flour and frosting, I have this...  

... from my wonderful husband. He picked out the container himself from a store separate from the florist. He's so impressive, and knows my style so well.

I've been very loved today.