Happy Valentine's Day!

Mark and I celebrated Valentine's Day a day early since it falls on a Monday this year...Oh, and parent/teacher conferences were today!  Those poor parents!  I hope they all got good news so they can go out with their spouses and relax for Valentine's Day!

We went to Upperline for the first time.  We've almost eaten our way through New Orleans.  We have very few classic "must-do" restaurants left to try and Upperline was one of them.  It was a great dinner.  The fried green tomatoes with remoulade sauce was the best I've had in NOLA.  The tomatoes were cooked al dente almost as if they were flash fried and the batter was perfectly seasoned.  The shrimp remoulade sauce was delicious with plump shrimp and mustard seeds still visible in the sauce.  Yummy!  We both got the slow cooked roasted duck with a peach ginger sauce and pecan brown sugar sweet potatoes.  The sweet potatoes could have been dessert!  Finally, we finished the meal off with a honey pecan bread pudding with toffee sauce.  AND THIS IS WHY YOU AUTOMATICALLY GAIN 20 LBS. WHILE LIVING IN NEW ORLEANS.  What they say about food in NOLA is absolutely true.  It is the best in the world.  The dishes are creative, cooked to perfection, and served with true southern hospitality.  Next we stopped by my favorite sweet shop, Sucre, for a classic NOLA Cafe' Au Lait (coffee with chickory and steamed milk).

Today, Valentine's Day, I am a little delirious from rich food.  I feel physically full, and I can't take any more food.  Yet, I can't say that anything I ate was satisfying.  I crave more.  I love restaurants and being treated like a princess by my husband.  He's so thoughtful and appreciative of me, and he's the most fun person I've ever been around!  Even with all that my husband is for me, I know that I will never be satisfied on this earth without the One True Love:  Jesus.  He IS love.  Valentine's Day and every day is about being captured by God's ultimate gift to us.  I wonder if the words, "God is love" have gotten old and overused to those of us that have heard it our entire lives.  Do we really know what that means?  It means God fully accepts us as we are, satisfies our deepest longings, cherishes time spent with us, wants us to really know Him, desires to show us what He is capable of in our lives, and proves to us no one else will ever be enough.  As much as I love my husband (and great food), He will never fulfill my soul.  GOD IS LOVE.  Only He can fill me.  We in our greatest efforts can only make mediocre attempts to mimic God's love to others.  But it is boundless and knows no ends, reckless enough to cause Him to sacrifice His own son, and zealous for all to receive it.  There is no greater love than this.

What's my Valentine's Day plan?  Curl up, get my Bible, and let God remind me in His word of His love for me.  "Because His love is better than life, my lips will glorify Him..." (Psalm 63)