Love is in the air

I haven't been posting an awful lot lately. Something of a writer's block. When your brain is too full, there should be typically more to say, but it doesn't work that way with me.

We had a low key Valentine's Day this year. Usually I try to buy all my kids something "lovey" to wear, but since Old Navy really doesn't have any good boy's $5 holiday shirts anymore, it's much harder to do as they have gotten older. There is no shortage of girl's stuff though, so I am sure Scarlet will be decked out each year

This is probably the only year that she and I will match. It wasn't quite intentional, but when I got to the store, it was all they had left actually. I think we look good together!

Starting with yesterday at the boys' schools, everything was pink and red and lovely. Both boys had a party...Slade's was more of an all-day affair, AND he was "Child of the Day", so he had a great time. He was so surprised that he got so many "Valentimes", as he calls them. Spencer's party was for an hour at the end of the day, so I was able to rush from work when my school day was done, and I made it there at 2:30 on the dot, when the party started. His was an ice cream social, and I was busy scooping ice cream and taking orders for the number of gummy worms each person wanted on top. Spencer decided to add some of his candy to his sundae. It tasted so gross after that so he didn't end up finishing it. We ended Friday the 13th with an early family Valentine's dinner at Longhorn because we thought it would be less crowded than trying to go out on Saturday.

Today, I woke up feeling yucky, and I had no voice and my ear was hurting, so I spent the morning in my bed with all of my kids piled in with me. We bought them each a little something, and they were happy to just chill out.


That is really what we did for most of the day, besides some laundry! Scarlet's gift also came with chocolate, and she has had tiny tastes before, but today I gave her a whole chocolate heart. At first she was unsure, but then she got it in her mouth and couldn't get enough. She kept reaching for more, and laughing, and then crying when we said no.
I can't wait for her party in two weeks. I can't believe she will be one on the 28th. Her party is heart-themed because that's what I love.

Stefan has been so great about making dinner, but he hasn't been making it on the weekends (I wouldn't either!), however, tonight he made dinner for all of us...garlic chicken spaghetti. It was yummy! Afterwards, we enjoyed brownies with strawberries and whipped cream (I made those). Check out the pretty pink roses my husband had waiting for me after work on Friday!

Our boys beg to sleep together whenever they don't have school the next day, so we just put them down and told them they could watch "Mickey's Three Mouseketeers" in bed with the portable dvd player. They think they have died and gone to heaven. I am so happy that they love each other so much, despite their three year age difference.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about friendships. In college, I made some of the best friends I have ever had in my life. I am still close with many of them, but there are a couple that I could pick up the phone or show up on their doorstep tomorrow and stay for a few days, and the years between our last visit would melt away, and we would be totally comfortable with each other. I love them so much, and they know who they are. Besides my sisters, they are probably among the few people I would trust most with my secrets, my kids, me, and sometimes, I am very sad that distance keeps us from being immersed in each other's daily lives, and that our kids can't grow up playing with one another...hello Tennessee, New York, Ohio! However, I am longing for that kind of connection in my everyday life. I work with great people, some of whom I am getting to know better in recent months. I have great friends from church, but busy schedules and kids keep us disconnected sometimes. My sisters, it goes without saying, are always my best friends.

A friend of mine said the other day, "Friendships take work," and that is very true. I would like to be able to have the kinds of friends where our conversations can pick up as though we never had to cut them short days prior. I would like to have the kinds of friends who can come over at a moment's notice with their kids and we can enjoy doing nothing or talking or whatever while our kids have fun, and I won't care if my house hasn't been cleaned before they walk in the door. I would like to have the kinds of friends who know how to laugh. I would like to have the kinds of friends who don't have to make some excuse for not calling back or not keeping in touch because we would know it wasn't for any reason other than they absolutely couldn't. I would like to have the kinds of friends who know what my schedule holds for the next few days or weeks because we have communicated often enough for that to happen, and I would like to have the kinds of friends who don't need a background and a history of something to understand how a word, an action, a situation might impact me, good or bad. That does takes work. Time and work that I am willing to put in. So, my friends, are you out there?