Somber

I am not going to lie.  Going to work and sending my kids to school today was tough.  We spent much of our faculty meeting on Tuesday discussing evacuation plans and lockdown procedures.  Yesterday, a school faced the unimaginable with 17 left dead.  It was definitely a somber start to the day for much of the staff.  I think the thing that struck me was that I first learned of the shooting when a friend posted that her best friend's children attended the school.  There was no news alert until the death count total of 17 was determined.  This is what we've become, a nation where this is so common that there is no news alert until the death count is high.

Keep it Simple

My love treated me so well today.

I have decided to collect Starbucks mugs from places we visit.  Andy remembered my casual mention of this and took care of the China mug. 

Every year I bake a cake or cupcakes for the kids to decorate - tradition. They haven't actually decorated them in years because --teenagers. For the past couple of years, I have had one or more conversations that went like this:

kid: Mom, why are you baking cupcakes?

me: It's a tradition. I always bake a cake or cupcakes for Valentines Day.

kid: Seriously? Since when?

This year when that conversation happened with the third child, it ended like this:

me: Since as long as you can remember, I have photographic proof.

kid: Oh I'm sure you do.

proof in the picture above 😀

I hope you took the opportunity to send someone some love today, even if only in an encouraging text.

Creative Care Package

I attended a moms' conference in the fall and learned this fun way to send a care package.  Cut three sides of a square into a 2 liter bottle.  Fill with goodies. Tape up the square and add a label. You could probably just cover the square with the label, but mine ripped further down the bottle, so I taped it up. You can use scrapbook paper to wrap the bottle where the original product label would have been. You don't even have to put it in a box.  The post office will ship it just like this.  

For Valentine's Day we have always given the kids a small box of chocolates, and we bake a cake to decorate.  A friend once told me that she always bought small gifts for her kids for Valentine's Day so that they would not think it a miserable holiday if they did not have a boyfriend or girlfriend.  I thought that to be wise council. I never cared for Valentine's Day growing up - not because of where my life was romantically but because my baby sister was buried on Valentine's Day, and that was a hard time of year for my mom.  

I thought I would be the mom who always had the house full of kids friends running in and out.  I thought I would be the mom always sending fun, care packages to my kids away at school.  The reality is that I am neither.  I have not sent a care package to Savannah since finals week last spring, and I ordered that one online. Some of my reasons are valid - the campus has finals week "care packages" everywhere.  Between her church and dorm, Savannah came home loaded with sweets that she did not want last summer.  I don't need to add to the junk food.  I am limited by my own lack of creativity and my finances.  Even putting this together, I struggled with ideas, so we basically filled it with sweets. 

So what's in the bottle? 

• A message of course - actually four messages - cards from every family member except Julia who was at a sleepover when we packed it.
• Some cereal bars that Savannah likes
• mini candy bars and candies
• suckers
• a gift card to a favorite fast-food restaurant
• a small Russell Stover heart full of chocolates

The reality is that junk food is fairly cheap.  I could have gone with some more expensive items but wanted to stay in line with what the kids at home will be receiving for the holiday in terms of budget, and our budget is in recovery mode post Christmas while being hit hard by high energy bills after too much time spent with single digit temps.

Some ideas that I could have used

• make-up
• fun earrings (I would have probably had to get them approved first as we have different tastes)
• deodorant, toothbrush (I learned of this idea from a lady who always sends a toothbrush because she's grossed out by the fact that college students do not change out their toothbrushes 😜), etc.
• favorite pens and pencils (for Savannah that can get pricey as she is into artistic pens and expensive colored pencils - also a problem because I am not sure what she has - that said, she's very inexpensive when choosing basic pens and pencils for everyday use)
• of course gift cards can be as varied as the person - her campus has an Insomnia Cookies store (oh so yummy!), coffee places, various restaurants, various stores etc.