A Valentine!

We were just finishing up dinner last night when the doorbell rang.  It doesn't ring that often, so we're generally surprised when it does.

Sweetness.

There at the door was the 8 year old from next door with a valentine for us, complete with a piece of candy for us both.  I just love his creative spelling!  And really, my heart was just happy.  I hardly ever receive a valentine.  What fun!  (And yes, I know there are those with the technical skills to blur out the names.  I chose, instead, to just cover them with that bright pink.  Adds a bit of flair, no?)

This morning I headed over to our local Senior Center.  I haven't been awfully impressed with this particular one. But had decided that I wanted to try yoga there.  I've actually been over there several times trying to attend this particular teacher's class but every time have gotten over there only to find there was no class that day.  I was more confident this morning, because I'd phoned yesterday and was assured there'd be class.   It was a fine class.  I did a couple poses / sequences that I've not done before.  She's definitely a professional.  But really, when class starts at 9:30 (it was nearly 15 minutes late starting today) and goes for an hour, then I walked home, it was 11:30 before I managed to get showered and noon before I had any sort of breakfast.  Just too much of the day consumed.  Yoga and walking and most kind of exercises are meant (in my mind) to reduce stress.  When it takes that much of my day, I'm finding my mind ramping up with pressure, and yes, more stress.  Probably won't be going back to that class, I do better earlier in the day.

The good thing, though, was The Husband walked down the trail and met me on my way home.  How lovely to meander along in the sunshine (before the storm hits tonight) with my favorite.

And then, I returned home to another little "valentine" gift.  The Husband had vacuumed!  I honestly never-never-never expected that. Wasn't sure he knew his way around the vacuum. And that half of the house looks so great.  (He didn't have time to do the whole house while I was gone.) That was a fabulous "valentine" for me!

And we were so rudely awakened this morning.  A couple minutes after five there was a loud rumbling and the house shook and I turned to The Husband and said that was an earthquake, wasn't it?  And then almost ten minutes later was another one.  It took a while for my heart to slow. I so do not like earthquakes.  At least I wasn't in the shower for this one (have had that happen when we lived in CA) - and The Husband wasn't out of town - as has also happened. We both tried to go back to sleep but that was fruitless where I was concerned. We probably need to refresh our earthquake preparedness, both physically and mentally.  Though I'm not sure I'll ever be mentally prepared for that kind of crisis.

So, today, I'm grateful for some sunshine between storms, and for some warmth that has melted a lot of the snow.  I'm grateful that the earthquakes were small and that no damage occurred.  I'm grateful for kind little blonde boys from next door who bring us a homemade valentine and hang around for a hug, that really was sweet nectar for my soul. I'm grateful for freshly vacuumed floors that magically happened without me.  I'm at this moment in a fortunate state of mind, storing up my strength for the next round of challenges that undoubtedly will come.