Valentine's Weekend

I had a gloriously long weekend, with the holiday Monday and a sick kid on Friday (I should caveat that having a sick kid is not actually glorious, but he wasn't that very sick, just coughing so much that his teacher asked him to kindly stay home).

I used to have a four-day weekend every week. I forgot how great that was. What an idiot I was to give it up!

With the extra time, I was able to get started on a household project I've been meaning to get to for months--more on that next week.

I also got out for a nice long walk in the woods every day, sometimes with companions, and sometimes alone.

I made these cookies and sent out Valentine's cards (this year's card--the reflection of a pink crabapple tree in a heart-shaped puddle--only showed up on Saturday. I was feeling very irritated with the photo-card company for taking two weeks to get my cards to me, while at the same time feeling very first-world-problem-guilty, especially after my complaint email to customer service was answered by someone in India).

E, Z, and I carried on our tradition of making a Valentine's Day gingerbread house (okay, not much of a tradition since the last one we made, as far as I can tell from scanning ye olde blogge, was in 2011). This was from a kit I got for $1.75 post-Christmas. So we started with graham cracker houses and have progressed to the kit--someday we may even make one from scratch (though the kit seems to be the cheapest and easiest way to make one).

C and I had an old-people's Valentine's Day date--we went out to breakfast and then to the garden center to buy a new bird feeder (a festive Valentine's Day red one).

It's taken the birds a while to get used to it, but I think they're coming around.