This Was Our Valentine’s Day.

This might look ordinary to some, but on a day when 17 hopeful young lives got mowed down in a school and other dear souls are fighting for their last breaths on a hospital bed,
this is EVERYTHING.

Yesterday, I’m pretty sure, would not have looked like anything special in the world’s eyes. J called to say he had made reservations for the FOUR of us at a local restaurant. After a busy day trucking the kids around, I secretly would have preferred a nice quiet dinner just the two of us but hey! Babysitters. Last-minute, on VALENTINE’S??? Uuggh.

I understood and thought it was sweet that I didn’t need to come up with dinner plans. A few hours later he called again to say he was running late from Denver. Traffic was crazy. I was in the middle of folding mountains of laundry. But I quickly got the kids in the car to meet him for our 5:30 ‘reservation’. Traffic was indeed, craaazy.

Half an hour later, we finally got there and I realized that Emerson, the four-year-old had decided to eat something ORANGE on the way there. It was all over his mouth, hands, shirt, etc. but no worries. That’s what 95 hundred wipes are for, right??

By then not everything was making sense to the 9-year-old and she was asking two hundred ‘life’ questions while I dragged my breathless pregnant self out of the car and grabbed ALL TWO of my reluctant kids just. in. time. for my husband to let us know that we we were going SOMEWHERE ELSE. They had not kept our reservation and there was now an hour long wait! Back in the car we went, and found ourselves sitting down at a not-so-fancy, ordinary restaurant down the street a few minutes later.

We talked about business and the kids’s day at school and field trips to fire stations. Ari told me she loves me for no apparent reason and Emerson blurted out “hey we should take a picture!!” for all the restaurant to hear.

So that’s what we did on Valentine’s Day. We went out to eat in our orange-encrusted clothes and stopped long enough from our breathless trip around the sun to BE WITH each other and somehow it still managed to be the most special day, because

This.

This moment. These people. They are my gifts. Every minute, every second I get to hold and touch and love and look into their eyes is a gift.

Each day that I wake up to see their smiles and wipe their dirty faces and look at their hand painted “artwork” and answer their 200 life questions is a treasure.

Valentine’s or not.

P.s. Immediately after I took the first pic, Emerson yelled out that he “didn’t get to do his funny one!!” Now we have fifteen fuzzy pictures of him sticking out his tongue just. Like. This. and what looks like A giving us the finger while I’m laughing and J is embarrassingly finishing his dinner. Gotta love this life.

How was YOUR Valentine’s Day? Did you do anything special or did you find the “special” in your ordinary? Share your stories below!

2 Responses to “This Was Our Valentine’s Day.”

  1. Dawn

    Hi Ruthie! I just found your blog again after not seeing it for ages. So happy to hear about the new baby on the way.

    We celebrated Valentines as a family with a special fondue supper. It was a first for our children and just may become a tradition. In case you are getting inspired to do it as well, just know that it makes about 192 dirty dishes to wash late in the evening, because of course, fondue suppers take two hours! 😍

    Reply
    • Ruthie

      Oh, great to hear from you, Dawn! That sounds like a fun, messy thing to do as a family on Valentine’s.:) Hope you’re well!

      Reply

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