Today is Valentines Day. How did that happen?
I sorda forgot. I remembered two weeks ago that it was coming, and then I forgot.
Which meant that I forgot to make my kids valentines gifts & cards.
I forgot to make my Sweet Man anything lovely.
I forgot to bake a batch of sugar cookies for my friends, my co-workers, the girls we carpool with…
This whole month I only put up one decoration in the whole house ( but aren’t they cute? They are my Daddy’s valentines from when he was a little boy-isn’t that great??)
I meant to get the box down from the attic with all our other decorations, but somehow we never did.
I meant to make handmade valentines projects that I found on Pinterest ( I even wrote a whole article about for At Home!) but I never did.
Instead my head has been stuck in house buying/selling land.
Instead of crafting and baking my heart out, I spent the whole weekend painting the kitchen and kitchen cabinets. (We are taking our house off the market briefly to get some interior painting done and then we will “re-launch” be prepared for before & afters soon!)
Instead of thinking sweet thoughts of love about my Sweet Man, I have been thinking things like “this better be worth it” as I squeeze into tight spaces behind the appliances to paint trim that will never again see the light of day.
Instead of making adorable & punny cards for my kids parties I very gratefully accepted an opened bag of conversation heart candy and Angry Birds tear -n-fold cards from a good friend who had extra to spare and sent those with my kids unabashedly this morning.
For someone who is writing a book on creating traditions through cooking and crafting I am a lousy example this year. But this is real life people. Sometimes this is how the cookie crumbles. Even heart shaped ones.
At first I was feeling lowly about all this. About my loser-mom status in the V-Day department. About not being able to do all I had hoped to do. But then something grabbed ahold of me. Common Sense and Grateful Heart gave me a quick swift kick in the pants.Was I really going to be defeated by Pinterest and Martha and my own ideal-expectations for the day? I wondered Or could I make-do and make-lovely instead? I decided then and there that despite my lack of originality creativity or I was not going to completely fold, there was still time to salvage the day. So I came up with a plan. Tonight I will cook a frozen lasagna because it is Wylie’s favorite and there is no time to make one from scratch in a kitchen still half-torn apart. The boys will get to drink Sweet Tea for dinner – a rare treat – and there will be slice and bake cookies in honor of Miles’ sweet tooth. I will throw together a fresh salad for my sweet man who tirelessly painted the hallway last night while I was off having dinner with friends and we will all picnic on a blanket in the living room, under the banner of my daddy’s cards and watch Castle on the DVR.
Homemade or store bought, I am pretty sure there are worse ways to celebrate this day, than surrounded by my 3 favorite boys, in our warn, dry and safe home, eating hot yummy food.
I hope whatever the day brings you, you are able to find a way to make-do and make-lovely too, even in the small, simple and perhaps even store-bought.
Happy Valentines Day friends!
Much love to you all.
Well, speaking as a blurry-eyed, tired-ass mama who was up until nearly 3am finishing the valentine's for E's party at school this morning, as well as my card to her, commends you.
To be fair, the blurry-burning eyes can also be attributed to having caught my darling daughter's cold (“mama, did you catch my sickies?”), and as for the late night crafting session, sugar cookie-plating, & arranging E's valentine & little mesh sack of heart-shaped foil wrapped chocolates “just so” on the dining room table (THAT SHE DIDN'T EVEN SEE THIS MORNING)? Well, I'm frequently up that late, despite the addition of Ambien to my regime because I seemed to have built up a tolerance after 2 days & so I probably don't take it as often as I should.
Was that even a complete sentence back there?
Anyway, I applaud you for being ok with your friend's gifted Angry Bird valentine's, which, let's face it…the boys were probably just as happy with. I, too, had many lovely crafts I wanted to make, and didn't even make one banner or bunting. But the cards…I think they turned out pretty cute, and next year, I will not wait until February 13th to make them. No I won't, no I won't, no I won't. (who am I kidding? you know I'll be making the same comment this time next year)
But the cookies for E's class party…those were not made from scratch, so HA! I bought a tub of lemon snickerdoodle cookie dough from a co-worker's kid a while back, and it arrived last week. Score! So E & I made cookies (read: taking a hunk of dough & rolling it into a ball), and also worked on her math skills…”how many more cookies do we need in this row so that we have 4 total?”
And that right there is a good enough reason to bake cookies every day: MATH LESSONS FOR THE KIDS! AMIRIGHT?
To redeem myself for not making cookies from scratch (the HORROR!), I was going to at least make the frosting. And then I settled for some pink & red sprinkles that I had in the cupboard. See, I can let some things go 😉
Tonight, E's spending the night at her dad's, and I will be spending my evening doing any number of the following: A) packing up my house, B) eating a frozen Totino's pizza with a Diet Coke. Maybe I'll get crazy & even open the bottle of wine I bought in December….Clos du Bois paired with my frozen Totino's pizza. Damn, I am one klassy chic, C) going to the mall because I haven't been to Office Max since they opened a couple weeks ago, and according to E, “THEY HAVE EVERYTHING, EVEN SNACKS!”. Plus, I love office supply stores because the possibilities are endless….paper products of all sorts & organizing supplies, oh my!, or D) loading up on night-time cold medicine and actually going to sleep early because there's no reason not to.
May you & your Greer men enjoy the special evening filled with their favorite things that you have planned for them. And more imporantly, may the Greer men shower you with all the love you deserve.
xoxo
Just proves that showing love is done with the simpelist of everyday actions