Matters of the Heart

Last week was Valentine's Day. Welcome to my world....I'm a week late blogging about the event. Ha. Anyway, we all know it's a made up holiday. Made up by Hallmark, probably, trying to make some loot. I always feel kinda sentimental on Valentine's Day, though. Honestly, it ends up every year the same way. I get hopeful that I'm going to be surprised by my Valentine with something insanely romantic and creative. Then at the end of the night, I lay my head on the pillow and think "what the mess"? But it's not like I'm knocking the creativity out of the park, either. So, it's a two way street. I have good intentions. But, you know what they say about good intentions. Yep. Story of my life. I do the same way about people's birthdays, anniversaries, special events, etc. In my heart, I have something amazing planned - but, it just never ever pans out. If y'all could see my heart, you would think it was so sweet - too bad the ideas never come to fruition. Maybe at another time in life...

Speaking of seeing hearts - I had the joy of going to W's Pre K Valentine Party. I brought juice boxes, my item du jour. It's either juice boxes or cheesy poofs (which W corrects me to call cheese puffs, but my South Park shout out dies hard). I loved to watch W's sweet, tiny spirit as she addressed her Valentine's cards to her friends. She chose My Little Pony and she picked nine of the most perfect cards and one big one for her teacher. When I got to the party (approx 30 minutes early because my husband lied to me about the start time so I would be on time), and the children filed into the classroom, all of the kids knew about W's new sister, baby C and they all wanted to come visit her. They all called her by her nickname that W has given to her....and I noticed how W beamed with pride as her friends talked about her sister. I noticed how W beamed with pride that her Mommy was at the party to love on her and her friends. And...my very favorite part was where I noticed that W made an effort to include every single child in the classroom in some way or another, calling them by name and including them in the conversation somehow or making a silly comment to them to make them smile. When I walked out of the classroom, my heart felt full. Like we may be doing something right. I know that God has given her a sweet spirit - I also know that it is our job to cultivate it and to help it to continue. I hope that we can do Him justice. I hope that our biggest girl can always keep this beautiful spirit so that others might be able to see God's love through her :)

Life continued to be hectic that day. I went to the makeup counter, with a baby who was over being in the carseat/stoller combo, so I held her in my lap while I got new eyeshadow and lipstick. Our whole family met up again and I helped W get her dance recital costume. Then we all piled into Ruby Tuesday's for a super romantic Valentine's Day dinner. Ha. My steak was terrible. But, the company was stellar. When we got home, we piled into Mommy and Daddy's bed and opened our presents - even little baby C - we all got goodies. And.....I even got a surprise. A beautiful Pandora bracelet with a special charm chosen for me by my biggest girl. Maybe it wasn't insanely romantic, but it was super duper special - and my head hit the pillow with a big smile on my face :)

Happy (late) Valentine's day!!!