I don’t remember much about Valentine’s Day last year.  In general it was a stressful time. The house was going up but insurance was dragging its heels to pay out a portion of the settlement that had been long negotiated. This meant the builders weren’t being paid which was so anxiety inducing for Paul and me. We had jumped through so many hoops to get the wreckage torn down, then even more to get the plans for the new house approved and now we were getting to make a thousand calls just to get money that was ours and should have been paid out weeks before.

The wheels were coming off with the kids too. Eden had been begging for months to homeschool . At her Valentines’ party I found out she had told everyone she was leaving after the party and that some of her friends had been sobbing in anticipation.

“It’s not going to happen.” I assured a couple of concerned mothers. Apparently Eden had offered for me to homeschool some of her friends too, as their mothers worked outside the home.

“It’s not going to happen,” I told the second grade wanna-be dropout. “Not this year. We’ll talk about next year once the house is finished.”

Valentine’s isn’t really a big thing for Paul and me, but I usually do something for the kids, (chocolates and a card or a special breakfast) and I think that’s important, especially as they get older.

I can’t even remember if Paul got me a present last year, but I do know he gave me a card.

I’m sorry you don’t get the lovely effect of glancing at the crazy eyes and then reading the copy.

I loved that Paul characterized himself as happy during such a crap of a time.

We were children when we started dating.  I was in 9th grade and Paul was in 10th, the ages Lydia and Christopher are now. Paul’s dad took his own life a year later and it’s been up and down ever since.

So much has been taken from us but, at the end of the day if all we have is each other and the kids, we’ve been given so much.