I love that Kelly’s teachers transcribed her Valentine message to us on this woven heart made by her tiny hands.  The message is?  Um…it’s very KELLY.  Well Kelly, being that you asked so nicely/repeatedly, YES, I would love to be your Valentine.

Sara has always been a very independent crafter, and for V-Day this year, she made us a garden.  I’m not sure there is anything cheerier than a yellow garden in winter.  These lovelies are filling my kitchen windowsill.  Her little hands deftly punched brads through the centers of all of these flowers, making me wonder if she’s holding back sometimes.

And on a slightly-related note of independence, I attended a Parenting 101 lecture last week.  You never know when you’ll get the next piece of good advice.  “Never do for your children what they can do for themselves”.  Apparently, I was stifling some capable munchkins, who not only made their own lunches last week, but made mine as well.  They make beds, put away laundry, brush and feed cats, and start the dishwasher like pros.  The 2nd thing I learned was to disassociate allowance from chores.  The kids can simply choose to forgo allowance if they don’t want to work, which doesn’t mimic the real world.  We now have their chores on our family dry erase board, which gets erased as the days pass, and on Sunday they get allowance, no matter what.  Allowance is a tool to teach money management, not a stick and carrot for housework.  Housework isn’t optional.  The girls put $1 into their Savings Banks, 50 cents into their Charity Banks, and 50 cents into their wallets for spending.  Anyway, kind of neat advice for those us who have young children quickly turning the corner into kid-dom….thought I’d share.