Our Forty-first Wedding Anniversary
March 4

We have decided to save going out for a really nice dinner until an already-planned weekend trip later  this month, when I am not sick.
Thanks to the snow last night, my husband had to cancel work planned for today. What he needs to do cannot be done in the mud the thawing snow has made. So we are spending more time together than we usually would, which is nice.
I am making a shopping list which is difficult since all food sounds awful to me.
We are going to drive to town to grocery shop. I will take along a good book and a blanket and stay in the car while my husband buys what we need.
We don't need very much---one of, perhaps the only,
benefit of being sick is saving on the food budget!
I know this will one day be yet another family story of our many ill-fated, now-comical family stories, several occurring on our anniversaries.
One day I just may take the advice of those who have heard the stories and write a book.
But for now.....we are trying to make the most of the situation...doing the best with what we've got.Maybe tonight we will watch some old slides. That would be fun. 

Or maybe a movie?
I am sure we will verbally relive the day we became husband and wife.
But there will be nothing special we will do tonight.
Some things we will do as we always have, not just on our anniversaries, but every night.My husband will grill a steak for himself and bake me a potato and I will make him a big salad and cook myself some green beans which is all that sounds good to me.
He will take my hand as he always does and put his arm around me if we are standing up and he will thank God for the food, ask that God would use it to heal me and say a word or two about our life together. He will then kiss me as he does every night ......or just my hand or forehead since I am sick. 
 He will give a wine (a sip sounds good to me) toast to us because it is our anniversary and I will see those blue eyes twinkle as they always do when he reveals his heart.
As he looks, it seems,  into my very soul, he will flash that crooked grin that attracted me
42 years ago when we met. I will find it hard to look him in the eyes----it is so intense I can't bear it for long. Can a 64 year old wife of 41 years still blush???
Apparently.....

So, no fancy restaurant. No gourmet food.  No decadent dessert. No dressing up.
Just me, in some loung-y clothes, him, needing a haircut still (I  am his barber), wearing jeans and slippers relaxing at home......remembering, reminiscing, laughing.Doing the best with what we've got! 
And that doesn't sound half bad!

Sometimes-----often, in fact, the very best is found not in riches, going out some place new or special, traveling, dancing, drippy candles and soft music but in the every day, ordinary things.
This is true romance----the rest is nice---but beauty and love are more often than not, found in the simple things.....if we look for them.
So, tonight I step back from the usual anniversary glitz and celebration
and guess what?????  
I find the best of what we've got.
And I know full-well Who gives it!

Thank you, Lord for this man, this marriage, our children and grandchildren, our home, all the memories, and all the years together.
And most of all, for your saving grace bestowed on both of us!
Kathi~