We had the best Valentine's Day this year. Not because of anything particular we did (ever since we started up Radiant we've been so stressed that we didn't want to make the planning a big deal). It just felt really good. Lately I've just been truly trying to appreciate the
amazingness of this season in my life. I mean really, I sleep until I'm done, hang out with my husband creating art together, play with the little kids in our complex, watch lost and go to bed together when we feel like it. What more could I want? I feel really happy for the first time in a long time. I don't want this time to pass me by without appreciating it. So that's what our Valentine's Day was really.... a celebration of our current life together and a reflection of all that is really good about us lately.
On Valentine's day we woke up at noon.... that was an accident but I guess that's what happens when you stay up until 4 am! The night before we'd had a one of those momentous, life-changing kind of conversations that made us feel so much more connected and understood by each other. So we woke up with that peaceful, chill feeling of resolution and then we moved on to our fancy breakfast making! We made these beautiful little lemon blueberry scones with honey-fruit-granola stuff, and of course we had bacon for my bacon boy who needs his protein. But it was surprisingly so fun! You have to understand that we still eat like we're in college.... we have some weird cooking complexes.... so it was so cool that we actually enjoyed ourselves. We listened to a few records while we finished our 2pm breakfast and then we moved onto our project for the day.... candy grams for our apartment complex!
For our CARES Team Valentine's Project we advertised that residents could send little cards with a personal message attached to a bag of candy to anyone in the complex they wanted and we would hand deliver them on Valentine's Day. That's the kind of activity that you never quite know how it will go over (it doesn't involve a free meal after all), but it really worked! And it was so fun to see the different people that sent them to each other with their cute little messages. Mommies to sons, men to their baby mamas, and Steve to Nick (with love)
whoa! Seriously though, the relationships in our complex tend to be very
volatile and negative, so it was a huge encouragement for me to see them saying some positive things to one another.
I have to pause here to tell you just how much I REALLY love Valentine's Day. I've always loved Valentine's Day whether I was coupled up or not. I never really got why people have to get so angry and feel sorry for themselves on Valentine's Day, because I know most of them have someone in their lives they can show love to. It's this awesome day that is designed just to remind you to be loving.... how can that be bad? It doesn't have to be romantic and the whole point of the day is to make someone else feel good, not to be consumed with self-pity. I mean really, how can you hate a day full of soft tiny teddy bears tentatively holding hearts out in hopes they will be accepted by someone and candy hearts that say "fax me!"? But I digress....
I really do love the day and it was so cool to feel like we got to be a part of the important side of Valentine's day and to help people express their love creatively. We got to go around handing out bags of candy to little kids who were absolutely thrilled that someone came to the door and asked for them by name (They felt so important!) Some of my favorites were the non-romantic, neighbor to neighbor ones. There was one from one little kid to another saying "I've missed you at the park" and it had a little drawing of who knows what to accompany it. My favorite one by far though was the one from the semi-absent father (who didn't live here) that was just a note to let his "girls" know he was there for them even though he couldn't live with them and that he missed them and was always there for them whenever they needed anything. I gave that one extra candy. ;-)
After the candy gram part of our day came the "we're so lame" part. Ever since we started up Radiant, holidays have just blown by us and we hardly glance up at them. This is sad to me because holidays are very important to me and now that our getting started hump is over, we'll be getting back into normal life things.... but Valentine's Day still got the shaft from us. We were so busy that neither one of us got the other one a present. So we just decided to buy ourselves a new coffee maker instead of individual gifts. But since I do love the pink goop of Valentine cheesiness, we decided to get each other lame Valentine's Day gifts. The worst part though is that we actually spent part of our Valentine's Day at separate stores shopping for each other. I felt pathetic.
After the gift purchase and exchanging (straight from the Target bag) we relaxed for a bit and then went to see the movie "
Coraline" in 3D (watch the preview if you haven't heard of it). I've been waiting for this movie for months so it was a nice touch to our comfy Valentine's Day.
So really, the entire day I was just happy. Happy with my life, with my husband, and with the day. It was good.
Here's the best photo sequence of the day (we spent a little time hanging out with kids in passing)....
