Temporary Scarcity--V-Day!

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Now, I'm not normally such a grump when it comes to V-Day, but this year feels different. In between filling out endless health forms and paperwork dealing with my husband's injury, taking care of 2 energetic little children and 1 always-hungry baby, getting ready for my brother's wedding in a few weeks, planning a bridal shower, preparing for Ali's 4th birthday next week, taking care of all of Ali's preschool Valentine party obligations, potty-training Jer, having people over once a week, and doing a daily exercise program, I'm just plain not that motivated to make Valentines' Day as cutsie and fun as I did last year (see here ,here, and here). My friend Shiloh asked on Sunday, "Are you ready for Christmas?" At first I was puzzled. Then she explained that there was so much to do for V-Day this week that it felt like getting ready for Christmas!

In spite of our lack of funds to go out to eat or have a date away from home, we are going to spend some special time together.

Here's what we plan to do:

Make heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast

Do a scavenger hunt with heart-shaped papers for the kids (with messages telling them why we love them)

When the kids go to bed at 7 we will prepare a meal together from things we have on hand, and eat by candlelight, soaking up the quiet and lack of interruptions (we hope). I plan to make frozen hot chocolate for the first time as a special treat.

My hubby did get me flowers, which was a nice surprise, and I plan to give him some coupons for massages/favorite cookies/hugs&kisses as well as a food treat I picked up last week on a great sale.

My mom plans to have us over for lunch and do a little Valentine's box for the kids. We always did this growing up and it's lots of fun. I'll throw in a couple of candies for the kids which I picked up for 20 cents each last week and a nice card for my hubby that I bought last year and forgot to give him.

Ali made some of her Valentines by painting hearts on paper and Grammy gave us a big bag of cute Valentines to choose from for her classmates since she's a teacher and had lots of extras on hands from years past.

We sent all the grandparents a cute Valentine card with a photo of the 3 kids on it that we got for free thanks to a tip from Money Saving Mom a couple of weeks ago. We got 6 photo cards absolutely free, no shipping, no purchase necessary! Yay!

In past years I've often tried to give all of my friends and family Valentines and bring them to lonely people, neighbors, etc. and get my folks and brothers a little treat for the Valentine box but this year I just don't have the energy. Instead, I'm trying to focus on my hubby mainly since Valentine's is supposed to be about your significant other, and not necessarily about everyone under the sun whom you love in general.