Special Day number 3

Ok, here's the last of my special days for awhile....at least the known special days. Of course Papa gives me special days each day I wake up and see the world around me. But these are special calendar days. Today was our anniversary. Yes, this means that Dodi does all his shopping in one week each year. We start the week with Little Critter's birthday (see special Day number 1), then three days later is my birthday (see special day number 2) and then three days later we have our anniversary. Folks laughingly ask how we managed to arrange things this way, but I assure you it was a G-d thing! Even the anniversary was set by Him. Dodi wanted a December wedding, I wanted a June wedding......the only time we could get the church to be married in was in March. So we married in March. And it just so happens, our anniversary always falls during Spring Break, so we don't have to worry about work the next day for Dodi. (I often have to work the next day since it always falls during tax season, but my boss is great so it's never a problem.) This year, our 17th anniversary, Boss gave me both Friday and Saturday off. And since the office is closed on Sundays, I got a three day holiday from work!! Too cool during tax season!!!
Since our anniversary also fell on Shabbot, we enjoyed a very relaxed and enjoyable day. We started the day with a treat for breakfast....we had cinnamon rolls. We usually don't eat them (although we all love them) due to Dodi being diabetic. But we ate them this morning. Then after watching some Christian cartoons with Little Critter, we went to the local feed store and got the last of the seedlings/seeds for the garden, and spent some time out in Papa's gloriously beautiful sunshine planting same. Now I realize the Torah says we're to do no work on the Shabbot. But we don't consider gardening work.....it's fun and relaxing for us. We enjoy it. We get to spend time together as a family, we each have our sections of the garden we're responsible for and often compete to see who's able to keep the weeds out of their section the best. (Yes, even Little Critter has his own couple rows he has to weed...and he really does a pretty good job for a 9 yo squirrly boy!) After we'd planted, we watered the whole garden (here in Texas we're still in the midst of a several year drought.) Then we ate some lunch, took a rest, and spent the afternoon playing in our own ways. Little Critter of course was outside making an incredible amount of noise and running all over the place. Dodi rearranged his wood shop and played with some of his woods and tools. I was a lazy bum and watched a Christian movie for a bit, then read a little bit. Later, we took the cabbage from Shabbot dinner over to Pawpaw and visited with Nana and Pawpaw before going to dinner. All in all, it wasn't romantic, exciting, or even expensive as anniversaries go. But it was relaxing, refreshing and family oriented. Dodi told me he felt that as long as we were together, doing things as a team, and enjoying ourselves, it was a wonderful anniversary. I agree with him. Candle-light dinners at expensive restaurants in fancy clothing and extreme bills are nice.....but really not that necessary. Instead, while gardening, we dreamed of the things we'd like to do to our home, our garden, things we'd like to do after tax season, after school ends, sometime this year, this lifetime....what we'd like to see in Little Critter's life, his character....we talked, and we talked and we enjoyed each other. I think we had a better anniversary than if we'd spent lots of money on an evening out. Besides, tomorrow, we're to have lunch with friends. How could we ask for more? Papa reminded me today thru my beloved Dodi, that I'm loved for who I am, not for how I look ,(and trust me after 20 minutes in the garden in the sun...I don't look too good!!!!) , that His/his love for me isn't predicated on what I have, but on what I am, and that His/his love for me is lasting....even unto the end of time. It was a blessed day and I am grateful to have experienced it. I pray each of my readers gets to experience this kind of love. And that you'll find the love letters from Papa in your lifes. Shalom, Joie