Valentine Wrap-up

We have some fun traditions as a family for the holiday of love. We always have a pink breakfast (last year Daniel decided it was magical Cupid's food, and he tried to fly after eating his meal. He batted his eyes while looking heavenward during his attempt. Hilarious.). The afternoon snack was chocolate heart-shaped cakes.

We also have Cupid come for a visit. There is a catch, though. Bedrooms must be clean and children must be friendly and kind to encourage a visit from Cupid. We say he's flying around the windows, peeking in to see if he can drop off his suprises yet. I love it when my kids are happy to clean (and boy, didn their rooms need the attention!). It was so nice to listen to Sarah and Matthew help Daniel with his cleaning.

Cupid knocks on the door and leaves gifts behind. Cupid makes several visits and leaves different gifts each time. We have the children take turns answering the door, and that child is in charge of distributing the gifts or treats to the rest of the family. It's so fun and they look forward to it every year (and yes, they know it's me and not a real Cupid, but they enjoy pretending anyway.)

We started a new tradition this year for the month of February. I purchased felt hearts of different colors (each person has 6 hearts of their own color). We have the hearts hanging on our mantle. For each act of service that is rendered, we get to put a heart in a large jar.

The goal is to have all the hearts in the jar by the end of the month. Sounds easy? Each time a child is contentious or disrespectful, they have to take one of their hearts back out of the jar. They have to do service again before that heart can re-enter the jar.

At the end of the month, any family members who have all their hearts in the jar will be going to the theater for a family movie night.

I did this as an effort to stem the sibling contention in our home. I'm amazed it's working. They are so eager to do kind things for each other so they can earn hearts.....and taking a heart out of the jar is an unexpectedly successful punishment. I've been so thankful for the increased harmony in our home.

What we've been up to...

Here's a rundown of our family's activities for a while...

Guns. I've always felt uneasy around them, and have never wanted one in my home. Recently we had an experience where I believe we had a home intruder (can't know for sure since I hid in my room with the door locked until Nathan came home, so I never actually saw the person). I was so terrified. I realized that I needed some sort of home defense, so I began researching guns. I arranged a girls-day-out with some friends to the indoor shooting range so I could at least fire some guns and start practicing. Here are the results of my first try:

The one on the left is the target from a 12-gauge shotgun. They only let me use slugs on this range, so the kickback was really intense. I had a bruise the next day and I only fired 5 bullets on that gun! It really helped me overcome my fear of the guns though, so a handgun was a piece of cake after dealing with that monster.

I should tell you that I hate loud sharp sounds like gunfire. I can't stand hearing a balloon pop- this is why I don't take gigs requesting a balloon twister. I was so nervous to use these guns and hear them explode. When I first entered the gun range, there was a man on my left firing an AK-47, and a lady on my right practicing with some sort of cannon- I don't know what it would be called, but the barrel was a couple inches in diameter. Imagine those going off right next to you in an enclosed cement building. It was deafening, even with ear protection. After a few minutes of that noise, my own gun seemed like a baby's toy.

Valentine's Day- I completely missed posting about this because we were in the midst of drama with Sarah's intense infection last month. The children woke to a Cupid-style breakfast. Scottish oats with blueberries, homemade bread with homemade peach-blueberry jam, and pink milk. Daniel took a few excited bites, then tentatively tried to fly!

My sweet darling made me a complete Indian dinner from scratch. He worked on it for hours, then we enjoyed a delightful dinner together after the children were asleep. MMMM! Chicken Tika Masala, Palak Paneer, Hot Naan, Saffron Rice, and chutneys. A perfect meal! I love gifts of time, they are so meaningful.

We enjoyed having visits from Cupid- have I ever explained our Cupid tradition? I don't recall if it's already on this site. Cupid flies to the windows to peek in the rooms. He hates chaos and messes, so it's important that the children clean their rooms so Cupid will want to stay. He is also very shy and will fly away if there is contention, so if we want to make him feel welcome, w sing songs together. If there is love and harmony in the home, he will stop for a visit. When he visits, he leaves treats and little token gifts on the doorstep. The gifts are given in one big bundle, and the children practice equality skills in working together to divide the treats amongst themselves. It's really fun and the kids look forward to it every year. It's one of my favorite days as a mother- the children were cleaning cheerfully (gasp!) and singing together all day. It really makes for a beautiful day in our home.

We took a home school field trip into Austin to see the Slim GoodBody show. It's a musical comedy show that teaches children about anatomy and physiology. It's done in a kind of Broadway style. It was a-maz-ing and we really enjoyed it. Before you ask, yes- yes I did check Matthew out of public school for the day. I'm one of 'those' parents. I think he learned more at this than he would sitting in a desk all day anyway.

Afterwards we played on the UT campus grounds for a long time. The children all played in the fountains until they were absolutely drenched. Thank goodness for warm Texas winters!

The rest of February was spent dealing with Doctor's appointments and severe illness with Sarah's infection. We were worried for a long time. Thankfully the Lord blessed her with a return to health. Her lab work yesterday came back clean, so now it's time for the specialists to investigate her kidney function, access scarring, and do lots of invasive exploring to make sure her body is working properly so we can avoid another round of this E. coli playtime. We are immensley thankful for modern medicine and for health insurance.