Valentines

Valentine's Day, yeah, I'm not a big fan.  Or, I should say, I wasn't.  I might've had my mind changed.  You see, as most women, I entered my marriage with big, romantic ideas (thank you Hollywood) of what Valentine's Day, and really, all other holidays, should look like.  Only, they never ended up looking like that.  They ended up looking like every other day of the week.  Daniel going to work (don't you love shift work?!) and me staying home by myself feeling sorry for myself, with each passing year adding on another layer of bitterness.  Well, enough of that.  Who needs romanticism in holidays.  Let it be for the kids!  Right?  Well that kind of gets old too.  I'm tired of the commercialism and spending so much money and seeing who can outdo who on their craftiness and come up with the best Valentine or the best Easter Basket, or the sparkliest (is that a word) "Kiss me, I'm Irish" T-shirt.  Blah.  Just blah.  Give me Christmas and I'm over all the other holidays.

February 7th I get a phone call saying the school Valentines Party will be on the 13th since there was to be no school on the 14th.  Oh yeah.  I guess it's time to get started on getting those Valentines made up.  Andrew was easy.  Iron Man for the boys.  Leftover Princess ones for the girls.  Do your kids do that?  Give boy ones to boys and girl ones to girls?  Mine do.  I don't know why.  They've always wanted to.  I love it.  They like to think for themselves.  I mean, I like Iron Man and all, but what little girl would want an Iron Man Valentine from a boy when she could get a Rapunzel Valentine from him with a pencil?
And then there's Katie.  Katie is not so easily pleased.  She did not want to settle for any of the "left over" Valentines that I feel is slowly taking over a small portion of the basement.  No, not Katie.  She is my crafty one.  She wanted to make her Valentines.  So what did I do?  I introduced her to Pinterest of course.  I handed her my iPad, created a Valentine board, showed her how to pin, and said "Have at, baby girl! Pin the ones you like and we'll look over them when I get out of the shower." And that's exactly what she did.   She chose ones she wanted to do for the girls and ones she wanted to do for the boys.

These, obviously are the ones for the girls.  I glued the pink paper on, cut the hole for the eye and glued the eye on.  That's it.  She did the rest.  Pretty impressive for a 6 year old!

 I love how she drew each monster specific for the girl she was giving it to.  Not a "one size fits all".

And for the boys...what a cute idea!

February 13, 2014, Andrew and Katie were laying in my bed for a few minutes of snuggle time before bed and Andrew asks if I want tomorrow to be fun and special.  I say, "Not really".  Katie bursts into tears and then lectures me about how holidays are meant to be celebrated, especially this one b/c it's about love.  And we love each other.  And Jesus is love.  So we should show each other how we love each other.  Why wouldn't I want to celebrate a holiday like that?  It nearly broke her little heart.  I didn't have any grand plans other than to give them a chocolate bar (and I realize now I never gave it to them and I actually don't remember where I put them), but I did try to do something special with them on Valentine's Day to show them that I love them.  I do not like or enjoy doing crafts with kids, but I pulled out the craft tub, including the glitter, and we spent the morning making each other Valentines.  My kids treasure notes so I put special thought into what I wrote to them.

I still don't like the commercialism that surrounds the holidays but I realized this year that that doesn't mean I need to be so cynical about it.  I can still love and be loved.  It doesn't have to be about buying.  I didn't buy a darn thing really.  I simply sat around the table with my kids making our own Valentines.  It was the memory.  I'll remember the night before, snuggling in my bed talking about what makes Valentine's Day so special.  I'll remember this being the first year Katie wanted to make her own Valentines.  I'm sure it definitely won't be the last, and from now on, I'll be better prepared (as in, will start more than a few days before the party).

Even Daniel pulled through this year which I totally wasn't expecting.  He bought me a new belt to hold up my pants (he's been paying attention!) ;) and another month at the gym I've been going to.  I wasn't quite ready to leave yet.

It's funny how I think I'm supposed to be teaching my kids about this thing called life when they're often the ones teaching me.  Love.  "It's all about love, Mom."