V-Day 2014 & Shovels Full of Love

Longtime readers might recall me complaining about Valentine’s Day in past years. Well, not this year. We are finally at a school that does not require intricate and numerous and unique homemade and from scratch valentines! Hip-hip-hooray x3 for us. Hip-hip-hooray particularly for me. This year we could be like so much of the rest of America and just buy the dang valentines at Target and be done with it. I have got to tell you: It was AWESOME. All three kids loved it. And it was truly painless. It made me a very happy mother.

Due to snow days, and snow delays, and President’s Day, and snow days, and snow delays… did I say snow days? and snow delays?… due to all that, V-Day got a tad bit stretched out this year. But, as of tonight, all three bambinos are finally officially done with Valentine’s Day. The school class parties and valentines exchanges are finally complete, and we can put another V-Day behind us. It was the best yet… because of the lovely simplicity. I think even Kyle and Owen enjoyed it this year. Which is really saying something.

The true love, however, has come in the form of snow removal. In the days surrounding Valentine’s, I have watched my family — all five of us in our own separate ways — step up to the plate and help many-a-Lehigh-student shovel out. It has been a really sweet thing for me to see. And the love has come back ‘round too. Last night, for just one example, a student that Braydon, Kyle, and Owen had helped shovel out came and brought us a whole batch of scrumptious, oozy gooey, warm, straight-from-the-oven, homemade chocolate chip cookies. All of this is the kind of thing that makes my heart just melt… even when it is frigid cold and we’re surrounding by mounds and mounds of ice and snow.