Young Love.

The plastic eggs have been emptied and put away, the china has been washed and replaced in the cabinet, the house has a floral aroma of tulips and lillies. Our Easter was a wonderful one.

I love having our home full of people and food and loud, full, laughter.

I divvied up a few dishes ahead of time and then just let it happen. Saturday night I made spice cake and apple pie and deviled the eggs. Sunday morning we did our last few things and then after church around the time I thought the ham needed to go in, J realized I'd made a mistake.

Our ham wasn't pre-cooked.

Meaning putting a 12 pound ham in at 12pm would not be ready by a 3pm dinner.

And all of a sudden, the stress I hadn't felt at all and the pride I'd had about being so laid back hit me with tears.

And J, kissed me on my forehead, told me this one was no biggee and took off for the only open grocery store around us, returning with a 10 pound pre-cooked ham that even after all 19 ate, still afforded us leftovers.

That's love.

And speaking of love, I've been hiding a little secret, holding out, if you will.

There's a new young love in our family.

Meet Teresa.

She's captured my dad's affections and I couldn't be happier.

I have always hoped my dad would find love again and I know my mom would have wanted that too.

They've been seeing each other since around Christmas-time. She lost her husband to cancer several years back and while she's originally from Colombia, Minnesota has been home for a long time.

We're all excited and thankful for the blessing that Teresa is in my dad's life and ours.

The cat's out of the bag and it's love.