List of "LOVES"

January has come and gone in such a hurry! It's hard to believe we are already into the second month of the year.

February... probably best known for the holiday in it... Valentine's Day!

I have been thinking about the "loves" in my life, both large and small. Sort of another way of "counting my blessings", I guess... so I'm starting a list (not in order of importance).

I LOVE...

feeling known by God in intensely personal ways...

the smell of Lily of the Valley blossoms...

Abe, of course...

the way God brought us together and also the way He has kept us together...

Hadassah with her chocolate eyes and her creativity...

Damaris and the way she cradles my hand to her heart when I pray with her at bedtime...

my Dad and all he has given me...

watching seeds sprout...

the memory of Abe's first most original, non-traditional gift to me... a fingernail brush!

to smell my hair! :)

the special dogwood tree in our yard...

Chloe and her 100 watt smile...

Abi and the way she says "axlydent" for "accidentally"...

Abe's gift to me of a huge wind chime hung in the dogwood tree...

chocolate covered raisins...

our "marble" walk-in shower...

my freshly plumped feather pillow...

the colors green and blue and any variation of the two...

my sister Monica and all we share together, from conniptions - to in-laws, - to passion for loving the truth and being who God made us to be...

books that make me laugh and cry and also that strike a chord in my own heart experience...

the way my brother Dalen enjoys my girls, being daddy to two of his own...

canning jars full of good food on my cellar shelves...

that there is so much to be discovered yet, about God and this world He's put us in...

the smell of fresh roasted ground cornmeal...

Abe's love for our girls and the way he plays with them...

zest...both lemon, and for life...

secondhand shopping... otherwise known as treasure hunting...

hot chai...

my friend Charity's example to me of loving God and having an open heart, trusting Him with her life!

spending the day checking our vending machines with my Mom, the talking...and sharing a Heath Mocha Frap...

that the ways of God are "past finding out"...

words fitly spoken...

our home and all the miraculous details that God worked in building it to it's present state...

my sister Paula and all she adds to my life by daring to follow where God leads her...

neighbors/friends... both past and present... whose lives have contributed to mine in countless ways that make me treasure them all the more...

my niece LaCaysha and her cheerful help when I need her and, of course, dueling it out with her at the ping pong table...

memories! Of people, places, and things we've done with them, in them!

our local library. :)

the tender mercy of God!

Carolie, every memory of her and the anticipation of seeing her again...

my dictionary, a gift from my favorite grade school teacher...

my brother Justin who will somehow always be my little bunny, as hard as that might be to imagine...:)

words, poor vehicles though they be sometimes, to convey meaning...

knowing that God has a plan, that if we only knew the extent of it, it would take our breath away...

my nieces and nephews, big and small, and how each one contributes to our family just by being themselves... especially Little LuLu as the baby!...

that we have no say in the date of our birth or death, but that we are given the choice of how we spend each one in between...

that by starting this list, I am amazed to realize the sheer volume of the goodness of God to me!