Well, I sorta screwed up this year. I had about $100 to spend this weekend and I told my lovely wife that I would use some it for Valentine's dinner. Well, on Saturday, the day before Valentines my father-in-law and I went to this auction that was happening in a nearby town. A company that builds fifth-wheels and trailers went out of business and they were auctioning off a LOT of crap.. they were selling everything. I thought I'd be smart and try to grab a few doors and windows because I am planning on building a shed this year. RV doors and windows work really great in sheds - very easy to install, have built-in screens, smoked glass, etc... But the auction did not go as I had planned (you really can't plan for an auction). There was so much junk that you had to buy large quantities of items for most things. By the time it was over, I ended up buying 40 windows. 40 windows!!! I needed... like... 3, maybe 4. Cost me $110 after tax. I tried to do some horse trading for a door afterwards - no go. Long story short... I am happy that I am going to save a lot of money when it comes time to build the shed this year, but I sure felt guilty about valentine's dinner.
Every year at Valentine's I stay up late the night before creating home-made valentine cards for my wife and kids. I like to get each of them a small treat. This year I got Jacob, my youngest, a bunch of silly gummy treats in the shapes of hamburgers, hot dogs, fries and stuff - he likes that kind of thing. Jordan got paper airplanes made from foam - he's the type of kid that loves to put things together - science type of stuff. For my daughter, I got her a silly little plush monkey that screams at you when you squeeze it. Jesse received a bunch of those nasty sour soda straws that makes your face implode when you try to eat them - Yuch! But he loved them.
Anyway, I call these treats "Sweet Nothings", because they are simple inexpensive things that are fun but don't really matter. I call my written valentines "Sweet Somethings". For these, I pour out my heart to tell them how much I love them and why - these are really something. Something you can't buy at a store.
When Sunday came, the kids woke up and saw their treats, they were very happy. Tara screamed when the plush monkey went off - she loved it. Later the younger boys were outside throwing the foam planes all over the yard and getting them stuck on the roof. I think Tammy partially forgave me for spending the money on windows, although she was really looking forward to dinner on Valentine's day.
At church it was my turn to deliver the lesson from the lectionary.. it was a really good one. the lectionary readings were from Ex 35, Psalm 99, 2 Cor 3:12 and the gospel reading Luke 9:28 - the transfiguration. I think it went really well. I spoke about how Moses' face became all shiny when God walked by him on Mt. Sinai. How Moses could not look at God's face or else he would die.. so God hid him in a crack in a rock and protected him. Then Moses came down and people were all scared when he tried to teach them about what God told him. It all worked together really nice. The tie to all the passages was how awesome God is, so awesome, in fact, that nobody can approach his throne without the help of his son Jesus. Pretty cool stuff. Several people commented afterwards that they liked the message. I liked it to.
After Church my father-in-law called and invited us out to dinner. We had a wonderful time. Afterwards we went back to their place to watch a movie and socialize. Good times. I even left a couple of kids with them so that they could spend the night.
It all worked out and we had a lovely holiday weekend. I hope your valentines was as nice as ours.
