try, try again: Valentine's Day

Holidays such as Valentine's Day are not my strong suit.  Remember this post from last year?  I mean, I used to do alright with them, before we had kids.  My husband and I made a point of doing something special, as well as getting one another a little something.   But when we had kids, things got a bit more difficult.  We'd still mark the day in some way, but the regular going out, even the gift-giving, has gone the way of the dinosaur.  I'm alright with that, truly - and we still give one another carefully-chosen cards.  But the rest of it has faded away.

And as you may know, I've never been particularly crafty or creative.  As a result I'm a pretty boring mother to have on minor holidays such as this.  I despise doing crafts and I hate creating clutter.  So yeah, not so fun.  

I did make a bit of an effort today, though.

When I was preparing our sourdough waffles this morning, I put some of our natural, plant-based food dye in.  Red, you see, for pink waffles.  The batter barely had the grace to blush.  I even dared to drizzle in some magenta liquid from my jar of pickled beets.  It made almost no difference (perhaps I wasn't sufficiently bold to add enough?).  The children didn't mind the beety addition, but neither did the result look pink.  If I hadn't mentioned it to the kids I don't think they'd have noticed at all.

In a flash of inspiration, I whipped up some honey butter, "for my honeys."  A little orange blossom honey, some cinnamon  a drizzle of vanilla and some softened, pastured butter.  It was delicious!  But alas, my brood didn't care for it.

At this point I pretty much gave up.  I'd had thoughts of printing out some coloring sheets with hearts on them (see how crafty and creative I am?), but my son only wanted Leapfrog, so...whatever.

Still, I managed to make a big heart cookie for us all to share after dinner tonight.  I'll light the candles and play music, and I'm sure they'll be fairly pleased with those offerings.  But that's all I've got.  At least, all that I'm willing to blog about.

So here's to all us underachievers out there.  Those of us who work our fingers to the bone, who love our kids desperately, but are chronically unable to jazz things up much for the day of Love.  

Let's hope the big chocolate chip cookie will carry the day.