I had a lot of plans for things I wanted to do for Valentines Day, but unfortunately I didn't get to all of them. The major things that got cut out were my plans to make and take Valentines cookies to my visiting teaching ladies and to attend the temple. The cookies didn't work out mainly because I couldn't find anyone selling a sugar cookie mix like I had planned to use. I guess it must have gotten discontinued. I didn't really want to buy flour, sugar, and all the cooking supplies necessary to make them from scratch either. In the end, I decided that since cookies can take awhile to make as I wanted to combined with the other factors, it seemed best to forgo the idea. I didn't get to the temple that day simply because by the time I accomplished other things I needed and wanted to do, there didn't seem to be enough time left. So I ended up delaying that trip until Saturday. I was somewhat disappointed by this as I had wanted to spend the day serving both the living and the dead to show my love, but oh well.
On to the things I did get done to celebrate. The first thing I did was make Valentines for my roommates as well as Miles and Molly. The idea was inspired by one I saw on Pintrest, though I made some adjustments myself. Since I don't have a printer or copier, I just drew Olaf freehand and then traced the others. Doing each still took a decent amount of time, so while I'd been planning to do one each for Gerrit and Elisabeth as well as Joel and Emily, I decided just to give the adults the suckers and be done with it. I thought they turned out pretty decent overall.
After the normal daily business of doing a bunch of applications and such, it was getting to be pretty close to the time I had volunteered to babysit the kids for Gerrit and Elisabeth. By the time I got ready and collected some supplies, I was running a little late. Fortunately, their movie didn't start for a little while still, so they were still in good time to get to it. Miles and I played Candy Land and Uno and I generally tried to keep Molly from wreaking to much havoc in the process. I read them some books and we also made some Valentines from the kids for their parents. Miles is really getting quite good at writing. He wrote "I love Mom" and "I love Dad" all on his own. When I asked him to write a Valentines message, he even came up with "I love Mom" all on his own, though I did have to prompt him a bit to include a message for Dad!
Then it was time for bed. Putting them both down at the same time was a little more challenging, as normally I've only done one or the other, but it wasn't too bad. Molly was good after I went in and picked her up after one crying fit for mom. Miles read a Curious George story to me and then I read the first part of the story of Ammon to him to speed things along a little more. Right as we finished saying a prayer, Gerrit and Elisabeth came home, so Miles got to go down and say hi before going to sleep.
Elisabeth had an online meeting of some kind starting pretty quickly after they got home, so I packed up and started to head out. I mentioned to Gerrit that I was planning to run to Walmart for a few things. He needed to get milk for the week, and since the kids had gone down pretty smoothly, he came with me. When we got the milk, he was surprised that I check the expiration dates when I buy mine. Apparently, he didn't realize that they are often different. He got 3 gallons, which seems like a lot for two adults and two small children in a week. Considering that he evidently drinks about a gallon and a half a week and I can drink a gallon a week myself easily enough, I'm not so surprised that Mom felt like the milk would only last a couple of days when we were both home! It was nice to spend a little time with Gerrit, and he ended up paying for my groceries, though I tried to stop him. I didn't want any payment for helping out, but I couldn't really escape that one.
When I got home, I discovered that the 95 version of Pride and Prejudice is now on Amazon Prime, so I ended up watching a few episodes to round out my Valentines Day. It really was an enjoyable day for me. I got to spend the time with people I care about and also accomplished some other useful things, so I was pretty satisfied. It was nice to spend a day reflecting on how blessed I have been to have many people who love me and whom I love as well in my life. Many people see the day as merely celebrating romantic love, but I prefer to see it as a chance to celebrate all the relationships God has provided. When I am someday also able to enjoy the romantic element of the day as well, it will only add to the happiness I've already received.
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