Dime Store Valentines and Cupcakes

"Be Mine, Valentine." 
"I Woof You." 
"You're purr-fect, Valentine!" 
"You're doggone cute." 
"We're heart to heart friends."

I know Valentine's Day is past and it's 50 weeks before it shows up again. The candy's gone. The roses have drooped their heads. The cards are beginning to look like clutter. The diamonds are probably still glittering in the rings and necklaces if jewelry was in your Valentine box. But I'm not ready to let Valentine's Day slide away just yet. I tied in Valentine's Day with my Summer of Joy Celebration Giveaway. Two more days until I draw the winners. I'll announce them here on Sunday if all goes according to plan. 

But first let's enjoy a few Valentine stories. I didn't have a great response with the Valentine stories the way I have with other fun stories you've shared. Grandmother stories. Best or worst gift stories. Christmas gifts remembered. Those are some of the stories I've asked for in contests in the past. And I got story after story and loved it. But when I asked for Valentine stories, they came in few and far between. I'm not going to say romance is missing. Instead I'm going to go along with the reader who said she had plenty of Valentine stories but they were private. But a few of you did offer up some stories and I enjoyed reading them all. I shared some of them already and thought I'd let you enjoy a couple more tonight. 

First let me say that I didn't expect all the stories to be about romantic love and they weren't. Linda shares some fun Valentine school day memories. 

"My valentine story involves memories from childhood. I grew up in a similar small town like Jocie. In elementary school we would decorate shoe boxes with a slit in the top and on Valentine's day we would go around our classroom putting little Valentines in each box. I don't remember if we had to do one for everyone in the classroom, but hopefully that's the way it was so there would be no hurt feelings. Also, someone's mom would make cupcakes for our afternoon snack. Back in the day, life seemed so much simpler because decorating the boxes came from our imagination and what we had on hand and the little Valentines came from the 'dime' store."

Oh yes, Linda, I remember those Valentine parties. I had some myself when I was in school, but I best remember being the room mother for my kids and helping with their Valentine parties. I was that mama who made the cupcakes even if I wasn't great at decorating them. During my years of room mothering, Valentine's  was always my favorite party of the year. The kids did decorate shoe boxes and they did have ten-cent store Valentines for each child in their classes. I kept my oldest son's Valentine box for years. He made it out of a boot box. Guess he was expecting a lot of Valentines. I thought I still had it, but when I went to search for it to take a picture, I couldn't find it. Isn't that the way of it? You keep something for years and then you finally talk yourself into getting rid of it and a year or two later, you miss it. :)

And here's a cute idea from Amy to make any holiday fun for your kids or grandkids if you like to cook. She shared this here on a different post, but if you're like me, you don't always read through the comments. And if you did read the comments, hope you don't mind a repeat.

"I don't necessarily have many really memorable Valentine's days. I guess I lead a boring life. I do remember my Mom always making a fun dessert for us, and I've tried to carry this tradition on with my family. One year I took it a step further and created a special restaurant for my family. I made up menus and let everyone choose from two different entrees, their choice of salads and side dishes and choice of desserts. The kids loved it and requested the same experience for Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner that year."

And you know what? Someday when somebody asks them to remember a special Valentine's day, that might be the very one they remember. What fun! Hope my grandkids don't read this. They'll be after me to give it a try. Maybe we'll have a go at it this summer for an everyday party time.

What desserts would you want on your Valentine party menu? I'll take cherry cheesecake or strawberries on a slice of Angel Food cake. Yum!

Thanks for reading and remember, you can leave a comment to be in a special drawing for a Hollyhill book or your choice of one of my other books. That's true over on Jocie's Heart of Hollyhill blog too. She's sharing another excerpt from Summer of Joy all about Wes's story about Bug Juice and Jupiterian Fropples. Wes has some great Jupiter stories. But to be in the drawing there or here, you have to leave a comment with a way for me to get in touch with you should you win.  

Thanks for reading!

 







 

Grandmothers Matter

A garden of Love grows in a Grandmother's heart. ~ Unknown

Grandmothers do matter. That they matter a lot has certainly been clear from all the wonderful grandmother stories I'm receiving. Even those of you who didn't really have a chance to know your grandmothers, realize you missed out on something special and now you're making up for your loss by being wonderful grandmothers to your own grandchildren. 

The lilac Grandmother's Bible would be so perfect for many of you. It's a big print edition and truly a lovely Bible. And I did find a lilac scented candle to give to the winner of the "never win anything" contest. If you haven't entered yet, you still have time. Just shoot me an e-mail from my website or leave a comment here with a way to get in touch should you win. Four prizes total, counting the runner-up prizes. Get the full details on my events page on my website. Just remember to tell me you never win if you never win!

Also have a few blog visits going with chances to win a copy of Scent of Lilacs. Check out my guest posts. "Dark Valley Roads and Bright Mountain Trails" on A Fictional Life  or "Heart of Hollyhill" on Giveaway Lady.

Now on to a grandmother story. First Margie tells us about her remarkable grandmother.

I was born in the home of my maternal grandmother in 1950. One of my aunts and a cousin’s wife acted as midwives….more than likely delivered me before the doctor could make it the 10 or so miles to her house…since there was no telephone, someone had to be dispatched to fetch him! I spent my first 5 years living in Grandmama’s house with my Dad, Mom, older sister, and 2 younger brothers. How I loved my Grandmama! She was widowed shortly after the end of WWII, finished raising their 10 children on her own, never had a job outside the home, and never learned to drive a car. As a tribute to her, all of her children grew up to become productive members of society. There were 6 boys and 4 girls. At least 4 of the boys served in WWII and all the girls learned to cook, sew, can, and quilt. I have wonderful memories of Sunday gatherings at Grandmama’s when all the children and their children would come. That old house overflowed with people, laughter, and love!! My Grandmama was always the heart of our family and we still have a reunion every May in her honor. She was a redhead and she was strong-willed, tough, and independent…and she followed her heart! Her parents had arranged for her to marry a wealthy member of their close-knit community, but just days before their wedding, she eloped with the man who, though many years her senior, was the love of her life. She bore him 12 children and all but 2 survived. She was a woman with an indomitable spirit who taught me many life lessons sitting on her front porch. She’s been gone home to glory for over 30 years and I still miss her so much. There’s going to be a lot of catching up to do when I get home.

 
This comment I got today from Robin. It's short, but it says so much about grandmothers and something I've heard over and over from so many of you - how your grandmothers were faithful Christian examples to you.

"My grandmother was a very strong influence in my life & brought me to the Lord. She has been gone for 35 years now, I still miss talking with her." 

 

That comment made me remember my husband's mother. She loved the grandkids calling her Mama Chris. She was an example of Christian faithfulness to her children and grandchildren. She moved on up to heaven several years back, but we have many wonderful stories to remember her by. She had dementia and ended up in a nursing home after having her leg amputated due to diabetes. But the Lord blessed her with peace of mind in her forgetfulness and she was never agitated or unhappy the way my mother often is. In ways, it was a blessing that she didn't remember because she had long had a horror of having her legs amputated because of diabetic complications. She never seemed to realize her legs were gone. Another blessing. Before she had to go in the nursing home, she went with me to a lot of Darrell's singings. By then, she was already forgetting what she'd said and tended to say the same things when she saw certain things along the road. I rarely go through where a hill has been blasted away to make a straight road without remembering how she would say, with a hint of awe, "We'd have never known all these rocks were under the ground if it weren't for these roads." Other times she'd look at all the cars on the road and say, "I don't know how the gas holds out." But my favorite was when we'd get to church and it would be raining and I would have forgotten the umbrella. She'd smile and say, "It's okay. We're Baptists. We're not afraid of the water." She was a wonderful mother and mother-in-law who loved her grandchildren and loved to laugh. 

 
If nothing is going well, call your grandmother. -Italian Proverb

Thanks for reading. What fun things did your grandmothers say?