Happy Valentine's Day!

Spring is coming ...
Hear the birds start to sing
Feel the life in the breeze
Watch the ice melt away
The kids are coming out to play
Feel the sun on your skin
Growing strong and warm again
Watch the ground
There’s something moving
Something is breaking through
New life is breaking through
--From "Spring is Coming"
by Steven Curtis Chapman

Cate wore her L-O-V-E outfit and handed out her valentines at school. She's into all these heart-shaped activities. On Friday, we made Greg brownies in a heart-shaped pan. Then today at school she made the wreath pictured above out of hearts labeled with people she loves.

She was really proud of her baking debut!
I really like our Valentine's Day story. The summary is: Greg and I went on our first date to Baskin-Robbins and then ended up staying up all night talking 13 years ago today. You can read the longer version of the story, if you want.

Seeing all the heart, reminiscing about the past 13 years, and hearing a testimony shared at church yesterday, I've been thinking about how seasons change so quickly. Last Monday, inches of snow were covering the ground. Today, I took Ben to the park. Similarly, I've been a little emotionally drained from dealing with my 3-year-old daughter's independence and attitude and my 1-year-old son's desire to be into everything and going everywhere. [And even though I recognize these challenges are nothing compared to what plenty of people around me are dealing with. Still, I was emotionally exhausted by the end of last week.] But I know sooner than I realize they will understand more and we'll be moving on to another season of life, where there is sure to be rain but there's also a promise of sunshine. And I'm left feeling thankful we have so many more good days than bad days.

And in it all, the snow and the sunshine, the hard days and the ones where joy and peace come more easily, God is worth praising. He doesn't promise life without storms, but he does promise to give us his strength, his peace and his love.

So I want to hold on to that hope, even on a day like today that has been full of happy kids, easy-to-find joy and plenty of sunshine. Because spring