a valentine’s day in the life

rich came into the kitchen to put something in the sink over the weekend, and quinn was at the table watching us and when we comically both turned the opposite way and missed each other, i said to quinn, “i could have sworn someone came in here.” rich was now behind me in the kitchen as i asked quinn if he saw someone come in, and could he describe the person. quinn told me, “yes. it was a boy. i mean, a male. tall, with the beginnings of a beard….”

then rich bear hugged me from behind, and after a brief loss of composure, i continued my commentary to quinn, “hmmm, rear bear hug with arms free, that’s crashing wings, right? (that is the name of our karate self-defense technique for said bear hug attack) and quinn said, “yup!” and proceeded to giggle while i did crashing wings on rich (who was also laughing) in the kitchen.

last night quinn had a headache so he fell asleep with junior strength ibuprofin at 6:30, then woke up at 8:30 to eat dinner, draw and listen to a story, and then i turned his lights out at 10. i had been in the bath when he woke to eat, so he microwaved himself a tupperware of brown rice and ate the rest of a corn muffin that had been in his lunch. he’s getting to be pretty self-sufficient, my almost ten-year-old.

after i tucked him in the second time, i printed out his star wars valentines that i had downloaded from etsy last year for his class party today. print-our-own star wars cards were a good $5 investment, because star wars will always be relevant.

this morning i put a valentine card and reeses peanut butter hearts on rich’s chair for him to find after he got up from stoking the fire. i wrote mushy stuff in the card, which had owls and said something like “to tell you the truth i like doing nothing with you” so i ran with that theme and also pointed out that this will be our only v day as fiances, so we’d better savor it! for quinn i put a pack of pokemon cards (in which he was thrilled to find a blastoise ex) and a jar of capers on the table (the back story: in the series of unfortunate events books, the baudelaire orphans make puttanesca sauce in the bad beginning, and the recipe involves capers, which quinn has never tasted. we had discussed making the recipe from the book sometime, so it was a literary/culinary present.)
i cookie cuttered hearts out of the middle of two pieces of bread, made a tiny heart pbj for his lunch (with another corn muffin, and a juice box, at his request) and then scrambled egg and cheese in the middle of the outside pieces of the bread for his breakfast which he gobbled. the biscuits were heart blob shapes this morning too, for biscuits and gravy.

rich called up the stairs that i should look outside, and i ran out the door with my camera to photograph the sunrise, which was heart shaped. of course, my valentine would arrange such a thing for me. he also serenaded me with a fun medley of love songs.

me: heart biscuit blobs. rich: jedi atmospheric control. he always has to outdo me.

i drove quinn to school, then got back in my car, got a momentary flash of his valentines in a stack on the kitchen table, and drove home and back to school one more time for good measure. his class was all doing yoga with the lights off. so lovely to find the long frame of him folded like origami into eagle pose as i snuck his cards into his backpack.

as of sunday, the christmas tree now has only lights on it… it is still standing in the living room as of this morning, still with lights. my friend wedding boss tries to keep me on task, but today another deadline comes and goes and my save-the-date cards are closer to completion, but not yet sent.

i baked my fellas a cherry death star pie. i baked them heart-shaped pizza for dinner. i declined to carve each whole olive into a tiny death star, as requested by quinn, but i think he enjoyed his pizza in spite of it. they each gave me a valentine card (swoon).

i may be behind on life, but taking it one day at a time, my priorities set on making my guys feel loved today and every day, feels right.

2 comments to a valentine’s day in the life

  • camp boss

    loving YOUR men folk is ALWAYS time well spent, and a good priority. they are two of the luckiest most loved guys around, they are in good company with my men folks of course!! 🙂 those save the date cards will be ready when the time is right 😉

  • what a perfect day 🙂 it cracked me up the way you compared your morning “gifts”… “jedi atmospheric control”… LOVE IT!!!

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