i'm in the mood for love

i promised myself i wasn't going to make a valentines day blog header. you know.. themed header means i have to just do another one in about 2 weeks. waste-o-time.

but somehow-- i got in the mood for love.

it was possibly because today was long and hard. no one slept well last night and it's not really fair to the concept of sleep to say that i even really slept. let's call it dozing. that way i can hold out hope that real sleep will be something completely different than whatever that was last night.

so today all the tired people were hanging out together being tired and crabby.. i didn't even really get a chance to be crabby. grayson and arianna beat me to it. every time i thought for sure it would be my turn to pout and fight they  totally just cut right in front of me.

so there came a point when i literally sat them on the bench next to each other and taught them one of the deep eternal lessons gleaned from the massive amount of time i spent watching LOST...

"you guys--- if we can't learn to live together we will die alone!"

blank stares.
confused eyebrow tilts.
'mommy what does die alone mean??' never mind.. you just can't get off the bench until you decide to show love to each other.

so while they were sitting there trying to figure out how to do that.. i got my camera and went in search of love in my house... and i found it. i found valentines day all over the place.. and it reminded me that love is always right around the corner. even on the hard days.. even when dying alone seems maybe easier than figuring out how to love your sister... i think sometimes that is one of the reasons that i grab those happy moments and bake a chocolate whole wheat cookie with it.. or string a garland of valentines day beads with arianna... they are the periscopes on the submarine of crankifed children. on days when there is no hope of redemption ... and all you can do is keep pressing towards the goal called bed. these little things are love notes to each other. reminders that these kind of days are actually few and tomorrow is a new day... a good day just waiting to happen.

all we need is a little sleep.. a little grace.. and a little love. :)

i'm her valentine. yay. :)

the irony never escapes me that the people who get to take a nap ... never want to take a nap.

she is on. the. move. we chased each other around the kitchen island today and played peak...

she felt i should have let her win since she just learned how to crawl yesterday.. i said it's a tough world..
there are no easy wins in life. ;)

happy february. :)