HAPPY late VALENTINES DAY!!!

Leila must've been up at five o'clock in anticipation of the super-duper Valentines Day festivities. I could hear her chattering away for a long time before Dale's alarm went off at seven. With half a stack of care packages from family waiting to be opened, a cabinet full of doilies and constuction paper waiting to be created into hearts and springs, and a drawer full of candy to decorate cookies with, the energy was high by eight o'clock. Kennedy made red heart-shaped pancakes while while I worked with the little one on their schoolwork. I gave the older ones the option to do part of their work today and part of it tomorrow since technically, we have a four day weekend. In our program we have the flexibility of taking the scheduled days off or working through them, which I love. SO when the mailman rang the doorbell, you can imagine the squeals and stampede that greeted her. It was rivetting.
The only shadows in our sunshine are that we can't take homemade cookies to Uncle Bobby and we won't be able to surprise April at work with our traditional surprise drop-off , and we can't trek out to Wentworth to deliver cookies and drink hot chocolate in the QM with Mawmaw and Pawpaw, our Missouri Valentine tradition. And we can't invite all our preschool and homeschool friends over for a wild party at our house in Nebraska like we did last year... in the midst of a snowstorm. And we won't be able to go take cookies to ECS for Nana and her class, or visit Aunt Sarah at the bank with a special delivery. Life goes on. It just has to. Our other option is to venture out into our sunny neighborhood in our flipflops and spread holiday cheer to our new friends and neighbors here. Happy Heart Day to all, and to all a sugar-high good-night! Thank you to all of you that have mailed us boxes of treasures! In the spirit of the holiday of love, may you and yours find yourselves totally and completely in love with Jesus and life and each other! a day late...