Valentine's Day...a little late!

What was your Valentine's Day like?  Filled with flowers, chocolates, and love?  Full of bitter resentment and stabby feelings toward those in bliss?  Just another day?  Not to make you jealous, but here's a little snippet from mine...(Yes, I'm aware it's a little late for this, but blame my gallbladder for my tardiness!)

I do believe my gallbladder is ready to end our relationship.  It's been a good 37.5 years, and I probably haven't been as good to him as he's been to me.  I wasn't cognizant of his well-being during my 20s when I ate recklessly.  Now, when I've decided to take better care of us, he's decided it's not enough.  Fine, just go then.

For Valentine's Day I didn't get flowers or a card (except my holographic Star Wars one from my son).  What I got was even better!  I got an evening filled with massive stomach pains radiating though my body like a strobe light at a bad disco.  Upon raising my sick head from the bed, my husband is putting on his gear for work because he is in charge that evening and can't take off.  Joy.

What I did get for Valentine's was this:  My husband called his mother on his way to work, and she came over to help out with the kids.  My mom took my tween queen shopping for her beau.  The kids were bathed and fed while I tried to cat-nap through the pain.  When bedtime for the Hurricane came, Better Half came by to help get her to sleep.  I got to keep my sheets warm and cozy while everyone followed directions.  SCORE!

A lot of the time, I get caught up in the media blitz of what is normal or expected or the image of what I should be.  Valentine's Day is flowers and chocolate and romantic dinners and enough red and pink to make me scream.  It's music and romance.  It's confessions of love and longing.  Yeah, I got none of that.

What I got was a lot of people pitching in to make sure I was taken care of and made as comfortable as possible.  My kiddos were okay, and Better Half made sure I was loved even though he couldn't be there to do it.  That's what this day, and every day, should be.  While flowers are nice and exquisite chocolates are even better, it's those little things that show others how much we love them.  

Love to you and yours.