Valentines Day

I have some message boards that I read on and post occasionally. I discovered them when I was nursing my second child and had some problems and needed some information. It is a board comprised of women from every walk of life and social, political, and religious opinions. I just stick to pretty generic topics and the parenting stuff.

Anyhow... yesterday I was surfing around on it more since my kids are all sick and we were having yet another tv/movie day. There were lots of posts of women getting upset over their hubbies not doing the "right thing" for valentines day, or things that were going wrong so their valentines day wasn't going to be this big romantic event. I thought about how I have changed and grown over the years and how my expectations have changed. I've never been a big valentines day person- it just isn't a holiday that is big on my list of holidays I like to play up and celebrate. In the past though I have had a bit of a let down and "self pity" when I haven't been given anything for valentines day. The thing is I am given the love every single day that Valentines day celebrates. I posted on one of the messages where people were asking what we had given and recieved for valentines day:

I got a shirt full of puke from my youngest... and a sleepless night from my other darling children.

I gave them love and medicine...

DH will bring us home presents of more medicine, and if I'm lucky I'll get to sleep for a few hours tonight.

Some might have read that as a sarcastic response and that I was upset over valentines day being ruined, but it really wasn't. This year really was a good valentines day- sure it would have been nice if the kids weren't sick and we could have done some more fun things, but they were sick and we didn't, but we still filled the house with love.

Last night Rich spent the night running to the store to pick up meds for the kids, cleaning up the kitchen from dinner and all our dishes we went through during the day, and rebuilding our computer so I wouldn't have so many problems with it. Rich did pick up a package of Oreo's (his and the kids favorite cookie- we've started a little tradition of buying them for special occasions) and he got me a symphony large candy bar- but with everyone sick, only he and Alyssa (the one child that is not sick) ate some Oreo's...

Valentines day this year was special to me. It's not about the gift or the romance all the time, but the quiet solid love that is a foundation.