Love

Because it's February, here are 10 random things I have loved as of late:

• Crayons and colored pencils. I think I want to have them be an integral part of life as Little Girl and subsequent kids get older.
• Water. (I'm becoming a full-out camel. I even keep a water bottle by my bed and always drain it through the course of the night.)
• Man-angst songs. I've always loved these, and I know it's ridiculous, but there you have it. :) I was driving the other day and heard Jar of Hearts and We are Never Getting Back Together back to back and I felt like the stars were perfectly aligned just to make me smile and laugh. Man-angst songs make my day.
• New hair cut.
• Reading. I'm becoming an addict and it pleasantly shocks me.
• Milk. Many of you know of my obsession with cereal. Sadly, that phase of life seems to have been phasing out (I think pregnancy and being sick may have something significant to do with that). Rather than refill my bowl with cereal in the morning, I'll drain the milk, then fill my bowl with more milk to drink plain. So satisfying! Milk is wonderful in ways water just can never be. (And you know that I've also been loving water!)
• Spending money. (Whaaat?!?!) After the blessed shopping trip with Beth on Saturday, in which I actually made some serious purchases (by "serious" I mean buying kitchen accommodations that I've wanted ever since I was married but have never made myself buy), I'm realizing how wonderful it is to actually buy and then own things you need or really, really want. (You don't technically need a rolling pin... You can get by using a roundy cup. But life is so much more joyful and practical with a Real McCoy rolling pin!) Perhaps I'm getting cured of this spending-money-phobia!
• Baby Girl moving. Sometimes it's uncomfortable and she can even be rocking the boat so much as to make me nauseous, but I love feeling her all of the time. I know I'll miss it.
• The Library.
• Sharing on this blog. Random things, frank things, deep-thought things... Whatever I'm feeling. I think blogging might be becoming a dead technology unless you're marketing for royalties, but I don't mind continuing. Even if I have zero readers, I like writing anyway.

...

#11:  BLAKE. A lot. All day. Every day. In sickness and in health. Through the good and the bad. When you're driven nuts or when you're blissfully head over heels.

Love is grand, especially when you don't expect it to be perfect all of the time. It has lots of different faces. To quote a wonderful song, love can be "a victory march," but it can also certainly be a "cold and broken hallelujah."
Love can be laughing, love can be crying, love can be sneezing, love can be quiet, love can be silent.
Love is a first kiss where you feel both your heart and time stop in the suspension of the moment.
Love is sharing shakes with two spoons.
Love is running to the store in the middle of the night to get cold medicine.
Love is adding green onions because he likes them even though you don't.
Love is him watching Pride and Prejudice and you watching Inception. (I enjoy both, by the way.)
Love is him choking down the mystery crock pot concoction that didn't turn out anything like you intended.
Love is holding each other and crying different kinds of tears through the positive pregnancy tests and the miscarriages.
Love is excitedly planning Valentine's Day surprises for the Valentine's hater you're married to.
Love is Blake gently rousing me in the middle of a bout of fitful night contractions to help me consciously relax and calm my body.
Love is crying into your pillow because my goodness, how are we ever going to adjust to marriage like every other "normal" couple who "has it together." Just a sidenote for the benefit of anyone who can relate to that sentiment: "I was just sure the first ten years would be bliss. But during our first year together I discovered … there were a lot of adjustments. Of course, they weren’t the kind of thing you ran home to mother about. But I cried into my pillow now and again. The problems were almost always related to learning to live on someone else’s schedule and to do things someone else’s way. We loved each other, there was no doubt about that. But we also had to get used to each other. I think every couple has to get used to each other.” -Marjorie Pay Hinckley. If we're all "normal" like Marjorie and Gordon, I think that's a great start.

All faces of love are great. Because what would love be if it were missing any of its dimensions? It would be incomplete. Biased. A facade. A ruse. Love is love for its continuity, its unconditional nature. Appreciate love for its depth and many faces this month. Love isn't always what we feel we need to make it be. Let love be what it is, and love it for it.