One of the big dreams I had when we were first married and childless was making the coveted Valentine’s mail box for that first year in school. I still remember my favorite “mailbox” that I made as a child. It was Kermit the Frog holding a heart pocket. It hung up in my room for months!
My friend, Karin, openly admits that she dreds making those mailboxes every year. I secretly thought she was crazy! What was so hard about it that made it so bad?
I now know. It’s stressful. Trying to get an idea out of your child that is do-able. Something that will look good. Not making it too elaborate or too simple. Then my controlling self tries so hard to bite her tongue when letting said child help. And this was just one year with one child.
All said and done, it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t, however, how I dreamed it would be. But, don’t we tend to do that a lot as a mom? We think everything is going to be perfect. When, in fact, it’s the imperfectness of it all that makes the whole experience perfect for our lives.
Here’s the robot mailbox…
He did a great job on it and absolutely loves it!
I typed up his Valentines and he helped me with the rest.
What’s funny about the whole thing…he asked me last night why we were doing all of this. What was it for? Was he the only one doing it? That’s when I learned my lesson (again) that I got too many steps ahead of myself! We talked about love/like and that even though we set aside one day to celebrate it, we should try to do nice things for the people we love every day. And even seek out those who might not have many who love them and love them.
We rounded out the night by watching Berenstain Bears Comic Valentine on Youtube. Such a classic!
