Valentines

 I started back to work after a week of being off for Covid again, just in time for the Valentine festivities. Six of my students were still missing on Thursday, so we had a small group and could do a lot of fun Valentine crafts Thursday and Friday at school. Erik was able to go to the little specials group Valentine party on Wednesday. He brought 6 little Valentines for those friends and liked receiving a few fun things from them and being with them. The only other specials he has been to since early November was when I organized a group to go sledding two weeks ago. Of course, he had fun, but we go sledding a lot, so it wasn't too different from our norm. 

On Friday, Erik was able to bring a special snack to school, since they weren't exchanging valentines (same as at my preschool). Luckily our elderly neighbor Barb had given us a big pile of rice Krispie treats and chocolates, so he brought one of each and an ICE drink that I let him take from my stash that I had bought for the kids' Valentine's gifts on Sunday. 

It being Austin's 3rd week back at school and Karissa's 2nd, them being at school to see their friends was enough. They were happy! The YW had an activity night of going to see the ice carvings in Downtown Plymouth on Friday evening. Victoria brought a couple of other friends along and one of Karissa's best friends is in our YW group with her, so they both had a fun time. Plus, one of the leaders bought them hot chocolate, so that's always nice!

My Valentine and I got to go out to eat at a Thai restaurant. Our restaurants in Michigan opened at the beginning of February, at 25% capacity, so Jason and I were excited to go out and eat somewhere without our kids. The family dinners are nice to have, but I really am getting tired of eating with older children who still can't sit and eat a meal without constant reminding of what to do (cough, cough... Austin, and Erik...) Eating is the last thing on their minds, always. It doesn't even matter if it's a cupcake. That cupcake will sit there for a very long time until I threaten to throw it away (that happened on Valentine's Day). They're just home too much, with endless opportunities to eat, that when it's actually time to eat a meal, they can't do it. 

Ok, my rant is over, back on track. So, Jason and I really enjoyed our Thai food and relaxing while eating. We were planning on walking around Downtown Plymouth to see the ice sculptures afterward, but it had started to snow and I was already freezing when I stepped out of the restaurant. The thought of walking around outside at that moment didn't appeal to me, so we'll have to go next weekend. At home, we watched Leap for our Friday date night movie, after playing a game with the boys. 

On Sunday, exactly 22 years since our first Sunday Valentine's Day together, it was our family's turn to go to church. The messages of love and service were so sweet. Austin did a good job passing the sacrament and Erik was very reverent, even though he didn't bring the Friend magazine to keep him busy. We had drawn names the last Sunday for secret Valentines to serve or give a little gift to, so we revealed those later that day. 

Erik gave salted caramel dark chocolate to Victoria, Victoria took Karissa out on Saturday to Canton BubbleT for smoothie bowls, Jason gave Erik a bunch of jolly ranchers, I gave Austin Oreos and Carmax, Austin finished The Lord of the Rings so he can discuss it with Jason and watch the movie soon, and Karissa made sure to spend extra time with me talking, which I really loved!

We had a nice dinner of salmon and a tuna Italian salad. My new dinner tactic is that whoever gets out of their seat the most, helps me clean up the big dishes (they all do their own already). They've been sitting better through dinner since then. Karissa made cupcakes for dessert. We played Signs for our activity (and talked about love languages) and watched Enchanted, which we haven't seen in forever! So fun!

It was a nice day spent with those I love! 

Thai food!

I managed to throw together some heart pancakes before church, something I'm out of practice for.

Erik decided to just have his hand represented in the family valentine picture. 

The salad had cubed Italian bread, olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, capers, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Very delicious!