Grace Upon Grace

My dear friends, I have been indisposed in the most dreadful of ways.
Forgive me.

It has been a long but short week. My life over the last seven days is a dreadful blur and a crisp, clear nightmare all at once! But I am well. I am alive. I am loved and blessed and amazed and thankful and happy and joyful and pensive and foolish and silly and different and new and the same as I ever was.
Yesterday was my first day out of the house in several days.
I went to work and then went home. I was very tired due to all that I had been through in the previous several days, but I felt good. This weekend was daylight savings, giving me an extra hour of sunshine in the evening after getting home from work.
I went outside on the back porch, stretched out on the warm pavement and watched my stinky dogs roll in the dirt. I also saw Spring.
I looked up at the gorgeous blue sky and smelled the growing buds and blooms on the trees and felt like I was in heaven. We stayed outside for quite some time.
I'm not sure why, but something possesses my dogs around this time of year. They don't really do it at any other time of year. But in the warm weather they can't resist rolling their tubby little bodies in the dry dirt.
So I sat on the steps with a brush and waited for them to get within grabbing distance so I could scoop them up and brush the leaves and grass out of their hair.
They loved it.
And then they'd scamper off just to roll in the dirt again.
It was so fun.
Daniel came home and I realized it was nearly 7:30. I couldn't believe how quickly the evening went by!
My mind was in such a sweet place all evening. I know it had something to do with the sunshine and the cool, fresh air.
We decided to head over to Clarksville for dinner and dine alfresco at Zocalo under the twinkle lights.
I piddled around so much that we ended up at Zocalo around 9 PM for a late dinner. We treated ourselves to a couple of frozen Sangrias and went to sit outside but it was too chilly for us! So we sat in the nearly empty indoors at a small white table simply decorated with glowing candles and fresh flowers in a small vase.
For a while we sat and ate and drank while my husband charmed me and made me smile and sigh contentedly. Meanwhile I admired his handsome face and touched his hands and thought how much I like his wavy hair. He's so dashing.
It was such a beautiful night!
Being in Clarksville in the beautiful Texas Spring is so magical to me. It is such a quiet place, despite the fact that it sits right in the middle of the city. The houses are small and quaint and old. People are walking everywhere and the streets are lined with old-fashioned markets, gardens, a quiet coffee shop, and romantic restaurants with twinkling lights and vines crawling on the walls. Sometimes an old TV repair shop will play movies projected on their building wall in their parking lot. It is a neighborhood Daniel and I often haunt during the warmer months.
I felt a sweet peace and quiet deep in my heart and I sighed many a contented sigh.

After dinner we drove over to Central Market for some plastic bags and a bottle of wine, because we're romantic like that.

It was getting late, so when we got home I slipped into bed. Sunday evening I slept horribly because my mind would not quit. Every time I closed my eyes I relived something terrible and I couldn't rest at all.
So last night I asked Daniel to read Scriptures to me as I went to sleep. He read, and we wondered briefly to each other why Jesus put his spit on people on different occasions in the Bible. Neither of us could really think of any good reason.
And then I went to sleep, safe in the arms of my love.

"For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace."

John 1:16