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Feast of St. Valentine 2018

Coincidentally,  St. Valentine's Day falls on Ash Wednesday this year so we moved our valentine feasting and sweet eating to Fat Tuesday.  It has not been our custom to take the kids to Mass on Ash Wednesday, since it's not considered a holy day of obligation. However, we do try to keep things low key and prayerful to help us enter into the season of Lent.


(This silly little poem rings true for Catholics. Remember, you can't spell valentine without Lent!)

Our children have not reached the age requirement for fasting and abstaining, but we encourage them to offer up little sacrifices (ex. going to bed without a stuffed animal for one night, letting a sibling pick which Netflix show to watch, or skipping the Mc D's fries when out and about running errands.) So far, so good! They have willingly (no whining or pouting) given up their favorites, their treasures, and their comforts for Our Lord. What pure hearts, those children have. If only we could learn to love as a child loves!

Since Ash Wednesday holds precedence over the feast of St. Valentine, we focused on making crafts and saved the treats and sweets for the weekend.

The craft I was MOST excited about (and planning for since, like, November) were valentines for Jesus. I found the idea on one of my favorite catholic mom blogs. My girls had fun looking through our stack of old Christmas cards (I can never bring myself to throw those away). To save time, I cut out and folded the red paper sacred heart shapes. The kids decorated their love notes with stickers and "love scribbles".  Finished valentines were placed close to Jesus, at the foot of the cross, beside a crucifix on our home altar.





Second craft of the day were our "Bee Mine" valentines. They're exceptionally cute. Being the organized person I am, it was difficult for me to just let the girls have at it with their scissors and glue sticks. Paper was butchered, glue smeared on ALL surfaces, but the unbridled creations-- adorable!


I'm an avid lover of pom-poms. You know, those soft, colorful, balls of fluff? Yeah. My kids love 'em! Pom-poms have saved us from boredom on rainy days and they also work well for creative play. My husband gave me chocolates for St. Valentine's Day last year and I saved the box. I filled the inside with different colored pom poms and hid the box in the play kitchen for the girls discover. Simple, but fun way to encourage imaginative play.



My affectionate father surprised me with a luscious bouquet of red roses. It made my day week. Thanks, Dad! The vase of fragrant roses now resides next to the statue of Our Lady in our dining room for all to enjoy.


The girls were surprised to find these playful strawberries on their lunch plates. We saved the raspberry-filled Kafferep (my favorite IKEA shortbread cookie) for the weekend-- it was Ash Wednesday, after all.

Check out what we did last year for the feast of St. Valentine 2016.


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