Happy Valentine's Day!
I wish to say to all you moms and dads out there--Happy Valentine's Day. Of course, for many of us moms, the times are gone when Valentine's Day meant a candlelight dinner for two. When you've got a passle of kids to slog through book reports and word problems and study guides and chapter readings, who has time to make reservations a month in advance? And long gone are the times when we'd be surprised by a box of Godiva chocolates and a diamond necklace and a dozen long stem roses. That money's been earmarked already for 18 years of presents for the kids like stuffed animals with hearts sewn to their chests and heart shaped boxes of chocolates or bags of those nasty candy hearts with sappy messages like "Be Mine." To me, this day is like all others...it's a day with endless opportunites to show how much we love our husbands and our children with those little things that perhaps go unnoticed, like having warm, freshly baked cookies ready for them when they come home from school. Or like helping them with their math. Or like showing them how much we admire them for working so hard during volleyball practice, or like TAKING them to volleyball practice every day, or like disciplining them when they're caught in a lie, or like giving them cough syrup when their coughing all night, or like wiping their runny noses, or like telling them to blow, not sniff, so they won't get an ear infection, etc, etc, etc. These are the things that show how much we love our kids. As for husbands...I got mine a card and a stack of scratch-off "Love Lotto" cards and rose petals for his side of the bed. I have no idea what I'm in for for the next several nights, but I'm sure they'll include several oportunites to show him how much I adore him. That said, I have an assignment for you all: Tell each and everyone your family how grateful you are to have them in your life. Oh, and please wish me luck that those scratch-offs won't wear me down!