Skip to main content

Valentine's Day

Ah Valentine's. I read yesterday that St. Valentine was actually a Roman Priest who was beheaded. Nice. I'll have to do a little more research into why exactly Valentine's day became a lovey holiday based on this person. At any rate, I still enjoy it. In years past I've coerced my man to take me out to dinner and started thinking this year that it might be a fun day to celebrate as a family instead. And it turns out quite a few of my friends already do that! So I jumped on the bandwagon and declared the whole week a week of love.


I tied all of my nightly meals to the theme:
Monday - HEART-burn chili and LOVEly cinnamon rolls
Tuesday - Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti Carbonara
Wednesday - Red Chicken (well, orange chicken - it's one of the kids favorite dinners)
Thursday - Double Chocolate Sweetheart Waffles with sweetened whip cream and fruit topping with strawberry smoothie and my perfect scrambled eggs
Friday - Date night (this one is for me and my man)

We had our waffles and and then there was knock at the door and there were three little bags for each of the boys (I wonder where in the world they came from). They had notes and a little present specific for them and an assortment of treats - all B Mama approved. In fact, have you heard of or seen the UNREAL candy line? They make a knock-off of M&M's, Snickers and Three Musketeers - all without the junk and colors. And they aren't crazy expensive; I'm pretty happy about that. I was actually able to get some good stuff in their bags without the worry of Preston going all Chernobyl on us. Love that. And after spending an hour in Preston's class yesterday for the Valentine's day party, we could use more 'happy candy' without the naughty stuff. I left with a headache and wanted to ooze into bed. I have a whole new appreciation for our teachers; I honestly don't know how they do it all day - the kids were NUTS! And the atmosphere was laced with Red #40 and Blue Lake whatever everywhere I looked. I have to laugh to myself because I sound like such a fanatic. Maybe I am. Oh well.

So, back to OUR Valentine's day. After they looked through their goody bags, we made some of my famous popcorn (see Recipe page) and watched Skyfall. Love it. My big plan for next year will be to get a Raclette machine and do a traditional Raclette dinner with the pickles, pearl onions and meat and potatoes. It is SO stinky good and fun! That became my favorite meal while traveling in Europe - I LOVE cheese. What fun Valentine's Day traditions do you have?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ah The Joys Of Summer!

Life is nuts isn't it? And we all know that it never really calms down - the challenges simply change. School's out. Yay!! (No - that's not me talking, that's my kids). My two youngest are fighting like the world might end tomorrow and they need to let each other know how annoying and despicable the other one thinks they are. The toddler manhandles Preston's Lego car and Preston throws it in anger yelling that the toddler ruined it - and not just the Lego car - his LIFE! "This is the worst day of my life!" Sigh. I suggest a simple and relaxing game of Candy Land. They show up to the game table with their best of poker faces and they are not going to let anyone or anything steal away their chance at sweet victory. Accusations of cheating and board-manipulation fly, all the while the toddler simply moves his piece from one spot to the next which is simply just too much to take for the real players. The game is over and nobody is ever playing again. My mi
6 comments
Read more

Gratitude and Re-Committing

I didn't get the 'memo' but it looks like people are doing a 22 days of gratitude type of deal in lieu of the Thanksgiving holiday. Despite it being a little cliche, there's never a really good reason to not jump on board a gratitude wagon. Aside from that, I was also inspired by the lesson in one of my church meetings yesterday, that was simply on kindness, to re-commit to a few very important goals. 1. I am grateful for all four of mine, his, and our children. Parenting and step-parenting has proven to be one of the greatest ongoing challenges of my life. Not one of my kids is like the other. They all have unique stuggles, quirks and personalities that make me want to sometimes either squeeze them like crazy with happiness or frustration. ;) They are constantly reminding me (unverbally) of what my priorities should be and they are constantly teaching me patience. If I can keep calm and carry on (thanks Mr. Churchill), I think I might actually be okay at this parenti
4 comments
Read more

The Plan

I guess I should first make a big disclosure about little Preston and what ADHD looks like for him so we all have a better gauge on if the Mars Venus approach works for him. Oh, my little Preston. He has a good heart and a sweet spirit, truly. I know the 'true' Preston wants to help, is empathetic and wants to succeed. I only get glimpses of that Preston when he is having an 'on' day and his brain is doing a better job producing what it should be. These glimpses of the 'true' Preston are hard because it makes him seem like he is capable of, well, being a pretty normal eight-year-old. And that is the hardest part about ADHD is that these kids on most levels appear to be totally normal. But they aren't. Preston's psychologist mentioned to us once a conversation he had with a teen that had ADHD. He said that if there were two things he could tell parents of kids with ADHD it would be 1) Don't give up and 2) Don't judge them by their 'good'
2 comments
Read more