Splashes of Pink in February

February has been a rather cloudy and dreary month for us here, with a few exceptions, such as the last two Sundays which were beautifully sunny!

A couple weeks earlier, I had found these matching tops at a Ross in Rapid City when I was done with my few purchases at Sams Club and waiting to pick up Jonathan at Menards. 

So the Sunday before Valentines Day, Hannah and I matched!

"Match with your mother?" a girl who saw us that evening turned up her nose. "That's weird." 

Hannah did not think it weird.

And after hearing how other girls would feel about matching with their mother, I felt really blessed to have a teenage daughter who seemed to enjoy wearing matching tops more than once! 

Her willingness to match with her middle-aged mother was another splash of beauty in a frosty February.

In a world where there are barbs and frost and chill everywhere, there is still the warmth of loving relationship.

Not always perfect, of course.

Not at all.

But loving nevertheless, with a middle-aged mother learning as many new lessons as her teenage daugher about living in good relationships.

Above is a basket Hannah and I are putting together for the wedding of my niece Susanna Bradford coming up very soon in Missouri. 

It's a dish-washing theme basket with Hannah's hand-knitted dish cloths and scrubbies, dish towels, dish soap, paper towels,a bottle brush and other related things. 

I'm so looking forward to attending this wedding with many of my extended family in a few days--another splash of beauty and joy in the middle of February.

Here Hannah is about to go out the door to visit a neighbor who has asked her to come sometimes and read the Bible aloud for her and her bedridden mother. Hannah loves to do that, and I am grateful she has a special way like this a couple times a week to serve others and the Lord. 

God's Word will never return void.

It will never be read in vain--but it will accomplish what God sends it to do.

God's Word--splashes of beauty and holy color in a dark and perverse world.