Our Heart Attack and Valentine's Jar

Thanks so much to all of you who gave me great Valentine's Day ideas to help me with the article I was writing for Deseret News.  I had to keep it short or I'd have included a lot more of your ideas.  But here's the final thing if you want to check it out.  And make a comment if you want - we're getting great traffic on the blog but could sure use more comments!

We did our "Heart Attack" activity on Monday for FHE.  As with any project we do around here, it was a little  chaotic with both twins needing help writing on their hearts but insisting on doing the actual writing themselves and some squabbles over who took the hearts that someone else cut out and whose turn it is to use the scissors or glue sticks (somehow, no matter how many glue sticks and scissors I buy, they're always in short supply).

But in the end, we were all very pleased with the results and our kitchen is now happily decorated with creatively decorated hearts and sweet sentiments of love from everyone to everyone.  It's sure nice to know what people love about you every so often!

I'm so glad Isaac knows I like to have fun with him and I really am excited about the things he does -
sometimes I worry that I come off as a total stress-case to my poor kids!

We're totally loving the "Valentine Activities Jar" idea that Brianna gave me.  Each day one of the kids gets to pull out a slip of paper that has an activity centered on love on it.  Yesterday we pulled out "read a story about love together." Tuesdays are crazy crazy days for us - yesterday I had reading duty in the twins' class, grocery shopping, dance for Liza at the same time as scouts for Isaac and a PTA meeting for me followed immediately by a scout leader meeting I had to be at.  But because we'd drawn out this slip of paper that told us we needed to find time to read stories about love, I protected a 1/2 hour for reading time before bed and we read two favorite stories about love.  The kids went to bed knowing completely that they are loved, loved, loved and after a hectic day, I felt like a good mom rather than the harried not-so-nice mom I often feel like after a too-busy day.

Today, we pulled out "write a note to someone you love who you don't see often" and the kids had all these ideas of who they're excited to write an email to after school - grandma, a St George neighbor they miss, a dog they love (the twins are sure the dog's owner could somehow help the dog understand the email).

This stuff is working!  The love in this home is being celebrated - and being increased in the process!