Happy Valentine's Day - and other February fun.

We're trying to teach the kids new responsibilities, cooking, cleaning, etc. (We always work on these, but we're trying to get them more regular so I have good help this summer and now.)

Alee actually likes washing the dishes and doing the dishwasher, but she can't reach anything really (even with a stool) and last week I had to go through the cabinets after I found a mysteriously wet plate (the dishwasher always leaves our plates dry) and pull out all the dishes that Alee put away from one load that had been rinsed and loaded but not yet washed. -sigh- It's a work in progress...at least she meant well.

Trying to cram in some field trips before next year when I'll be "grounded" (I love nursing my babies, but it does limit what I can say yes to.) Seth and his honors orchestra class performed for various elementary schools in the district (along with the band, chorus, and dance) to promote the arts available at the middle schools and high schools.

The February birthdays were celebrated at chili's with Rob's family. Kaitlyn enjoyed her dessert.

 I enjoyed mine more. (Their molten lava cake is the reason I picked them. I was tempted to lick the plate.)

 The kids played on those silly little kiosk games. Alee somehow had the receipt paper fall out of hers?? She claimed she did nothing - it just fell out!

Four months "done".

I've actually been feeling pretty good lately. I'm still tired at night and like to stretch out on my side after supper. But I can be functional if I need to be.
When I lie down, the kids like to come sit in my "nest" (the triangular space made between my knees and the couch when I have my legs bent). Seth named that when he was about 3 and would ask if he could climb in my nest. :) Seth's too big for my nest these days, but his name has stuck.

Rearranging and trying to keep peace. Natalie's moving downstairs with Carolyn, so the other 2 girls made a shower order. Kaitlyn made every possible order combination. (She thinks she isn't good at math, but that is a very math-statistics kind of thing to do!)

 Seth complained that he got no vote. (I pointed out that it's fair and he griped that he had to be first on "his day"...we have assigned days of the week for privileges and his is Monday.) They put him their so he'd for sure get hot water on his day. You can't please everyone!

Valentine's day

I have never thought Valentine's Day was worth celebrating - not when I was a teenager, not when I was a young adult, not dating, or engaged, or married...until I had kids old enough to care about every little holiday. Every. One.

Since then, we have celebrated as a family. Sometimes we have been apart on the day or it falls on a day something else is going on, but when we can, we have heart-shaped stromboli with some kind of heart-themed or pink/red dessert. I set the table fancy and we eat with candles lit.

I set the table fancy while they were at school.

In case you don't know what stromboli is....it's basically rolled up pizza (although you can put any topping in the dough before you roll it up, shape it, and bake it).

(The bottom two pictures show the filling and the rolled up "snake" before I shaped it.)

 Some of them turn out less heart shaped than others, and they all started with the same amount of dough, but some got stretched more than others.

I'm glad I'm feeling well enough to do little special things again - I was pretty lame for anniversary, Christmas, and New year's. (When our anniversary falls mid week and we celebrate on a different day, we do a fancy dinner at home with the kids on our special day. Didn't happen this year!)

For dessert, I made brownies and cut them into heart shapes with a cookie cutter. Then I made cinnamon ice cream with food coloring to make it pink. (I picked cinnamon, but Alee would rather me have chosen vanilla) I put it into my silicone heart pan to freeze it. You can see the finished picture below.

 Mmmm...heart brownie with a heart block of ice cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce.

The rest of February is filled with a combination of travel and work. (Both of which I'm excited for)

We're visiting my grandma and gramps (and we have been praying for weeks to stay well and not catch all these germs going around so the trip can happen! It's been so long since we've gotten to see them.)

The work is all house rearranging and organizing. Natalie's changing rooms. Everyone's room is getting some fresh organization to help them keep rooms clean. Seth's room is getting some space cleared for a baby crib. And all the other rooms (including back porch) are getting some tweaking to make things fit or to declutter what doesn't. I'm sure this project will extend until spring break in April! We will definitely have pictures of that effort when we're done.