Valentine's - I can't help myself

Growing up Valentine's day seemed to be something made up by some association of flower shop owners. When winter was slowly winding down, signs and ads for Valentine's would show up at the florist shops. I remember buying flowers for my mother once or twice. Even as a child I had a dislike for holidays like Valentine's Day or Mother's Day, they seemed contrived and marketing driven. My mother and I would often surprise each other with little tokens of thoughts for the other, a little chocolate, a flower, some licorice, a nice candle - whatever we came across and thought the other would like it. We never needed a special day. How much meaning does it have anyway, when it is mandated by a holiday that comes across as being invented by Hallmark to boost sales. Flowers on Valentine's are obligatory, any normal day of the week, they are much more special in my view. Yes, you guessed it, no red hearts celebration in this household.

That works pretty well until children go to school and have to bring a Valentine for each child. In theory that is actually a nice gesture, children have to learn this somehow, but it turned out to be an exchange of yet-more-candy and ugly little mass-merchandised cards with superheroes and Disney characters, outside of few exceptions. I have a rather difficult time seeing something meaningful in that. So every year, my children had to craft Valentine's cards and put thought and love into it.

Last year I had found marble hearts and had the kids write the names of the kids on them, they were a huge hit and truly nice. So with that precedent, I found myself last night in the store, trying to get something for S to take to class (J had already crafted something a while ago), I absolutely could not get one of those boxes with cards, I was physically unable to pick it up and purchase it. Well, I am a bit of an all-or-nothing person and I can rarely do something that is not up to my standard. So even though I was very tired and had hardly any time left, I had to do something nice. So when I saw the rack with flower seeds, I knew that was what I was looking for. Admitted, it was expensive compared to a box of generic cards and it still needed me to do design, print and assembly, but I loved the outcome. I just cannot make it easy for myself, I just can't. It is worth it though, because I am sure that there are always a handful of children that remember these out of the ordinary Valentine's.