How to use this Page

We hiked Pinnacles for our 25th anniversary on Valentine's Day. It's the perfect place for writers of fantasy and for couples in love. On our drive over we tried to list all the places we've celebrated our anniversary over the years and we remembered every single one. It's funny which ones stand out. What makes an anniversary truly special. The stand outs are lessons in good story telling, filled with surprises.

Today is my brother's birthday! We've had four birthdays in about as many weeks. Mom always baked our birthday cakes when we were little. She was one busy lady come January/February. I was always bummed because I had to wait SO LONG for my birthday in May. I remember when I was little it was torture to have to wait that long when my bros and sis had their's all in a row. But Mom had to wait too, so that made it a little better.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

I should have seen this coming when my 8 y.o. started replying to my "I love you" with "I like you too." He's decided love is a gross, mushy thing that leads to marriage, and he wants no part of it. I've explained that there's different kinds of love--family love, friendship love, you're-so-cute-I-want-to-marry-you love. He's adamant that he only likes us and THAT'S IT. Now that Valentine's day is rolling around, he refuses to give out valentines in his class, and campaigned with his teacher to make it optional. So she agreed it's optional, but all his friends are giving them out.

And, here's the thing--those store-bought Valentines come with candy now. My kid will now be the recipient of a bag full of cards AND candy while his friends get nothing from him? No. After several circular conversations that went like this:

What about your friends?
I'M NOT GIVING OUT VALENTINES!
Is it really fair that you get candy and they don't?
I'M NOT GIVING OUT VALENTINES!

A bag of lollipops mysteriously appeared on the counter (because I'm crafty like that). My 8 y.o. eyes the bag. "Just give out the candy," I tell him, "not the valentines." He grunts. An hour later, he's come up with a compromise. "I'm celebrating the beginning of spring training on February 14th," he says. "That's what the lollipops are for. Happy Spring Training Day!" (Did I mention he's a baseball fanatic?)

If you're one of those people not in love with the day of love, eat some candy anyway and enjoy Spring Training Day! Play ball!!!

 

First, put on these oven mitts for the duration of this post (contents may be too hot to handle). 

 photo by EmiShimosato02.

♥ RECIPE FOR LOVE SOUP ♥

You will need:

One sultry red soup pot

 photo by jbelluch.

and one set of spoons for measuring sweet nothings.

 photo by kitschmafia.

As an extra precaution, have a number of fire extinguishers on hand.
     
         photo by alles-schlumpf.

Also helpful is if you wear this uniform during preparation:
           

Okay, let's get started.

Every good soup needs basic, made-from-scratch stock, someone who will please a wide variety of palates. Yowza!
  
    from idatedthedrummer's photostream.

Now, stock left on its own can be a little bland, so I suggest adding a little dramatic tension (people will talk about your soup for ages). Huzzah!
 
   from I ♥ White Trash's photostream.

If, like me, you're impressed when a dish is characterized by a certain "je ne sais quoi," be sure to include some French spice (even better if he can dance). Très délicieuse.
 
    from larissaunderwood's photostream.

Alright, since it's winter, we need some root veggies -- earthy, stalwart, and unassuming. Can't go wrong here (with or without a kilt). *fans self*
    
       from greatspacecoaster15's photostream.         

Good so far? You bet. But now we need more. What about a little luck of the Irish? Mmmmmm. He plays the cello, too.
    

So, my complaint about most Valentine's Day books for wee readers is that they never take their audience into account. Either they portray some take on romantic love that's going to go way over the head of a three-year-old, or they celebrate oppressive mother-love, which leaves moms teary-eyed but bores toddlers to tears. (Runaway Bunny and Love You Forever, I'm glancing your way). (Actually I am in the minority in the higher brow children's lit community in that I actually like those books, but they are definitely books for parents, not kids.)

Anyhow, when I found this little gem last week, I had to share:



Cynthia Rylant has written a slightly syrupy, yes, and sing-song-rhymey ode to Valentine's Day for very young children. It is structured as a series of conditional clauses ("if you'll be my valentine") addressed to the things and people a toddler loves best - his cat, his dog, his teddy bear, his parents. Two-page spreads depict the valentines that the child would give to each recipient, along with the activities promised to them if they will consent to be his valentine. He will kiss the kitten's nose, read a book about frogs with his older brother, and make funny faces with Daddy. The pictures are large, cheery and reassuring. My two-year-old endorsed it with six requests to read it again, which is high praise indeed.

Other good lovey books:

Mama , Do You Love Me?, by Barbara Joosse, illustrated by Barbara Lavallee. More unconditional mother-love, but with added mukluks and musk oxen.

Rotten Ralph's Rotten Romance, by Jack Gantos, illustrated by Nicole Rubel. A refreshing antidote to Valentine's Days filled with "sticky, gooey, wet, drippy kisses."

How about you? Know any good Valentine's Day books?

How sweet it is:
(Nearly) 30 books in (almost) 30 days!
February means the most romantic book giveaway ever! S&S and The Genius over at Teens Read Too have cooked up the (Nearly) 30 Books in (Almost) 30 Days contest. Simon Pulse will give away five copies of a Simon Pulse Romantic Comedy for every day of the month. That's 145 chances for you to win. Visit Teens Read Too (www.teensreadtoo.com) for details on how to enter, and tell your friends!

Being the proud mother that I am, I had to post a pic of my heart-shaped cake mentioned in my Valentine's post:



The kids were amazed and delighted. I love how easy-to-please children can be! What took me very little time and effort was greeted with squeals of joy.

Tonight was the annual Girl Scouts' Father-Daughter Dance. This is Chloe's first year to attend, and she was so excited. I took her to the salon yesterday and had a few inches of her hair trimmed off in honor of the occasion. Normally, she wears her hair in a tight braid, but we blew it out and put a pretty bow in it for the dance:



Here's a proud Ever-Supportive, about to escort his daughter to her first dance:



Sigh! Now I completely get why my mother made such a to-do over these things.

This was especially poignant for me because, as I posted on sartorias 's blog tonight, my father was killed when I was only a few months older than my daughter is now. I never attended any father-daughter dances with him. When Chloe was born, and I mean during the actual HAPPENING of her birth, I reached up and grabbed my husband by the collar and yanked him down to me and said, "Don't you EVER leave her!" I pray he never does, because I know how much I've missed out on.




Here's to you, Daddy—and your fortunate granddaughter! And here's to all the Ever-Supportives out there escorting their baby-girls to the Father-Daughter Dances!

XO Candie

Hello LJ Friends, and Happy Valentine's Day! I'm going to get sappy here, because loads of other folks are getting sappy! I freely admit I love Valentine's Day and all the romantic hype. I'm completely and utterly into it. No apologies!

I'm waiting for the heart-shaped cake that I'm making for my children to finish baking before I go out and meet Ever-Supportive for a nice, adult, private, romantic, sans-kids lunch, so I thought I'd post in response to beberly  's question about teen crushes. I'm going to show my age here, but other than the Beatles (who transcend teen crushes), whom I fell totally in love with at age six, thanks to my brother's MEET THE BEATLES album (I still have it—on the original Capitol label), my first celeb crush was on David Cassidy when he played uber-cool Keith Partridge on "The Partridge Family," a megahit TV show in the late 1960s/early 1970s. I collected posters of him out of TigerBeat magazine and never, ever missed the show.

In honor of my first crush, and for any of you out there old enough to remember, here's a tribute to David Cassidy:
Thank you, David Cassidy, for being a perfect first crush. You could do no wrong in my world. Happy Valentine's Day!

I love thinking about love—and writing about love—both the teen kind and the adult kind. I have the fondest of memories of all my major boyfriends growing up, but I reserve all my lifelong love and passion and respect and laughs for Ever-Supportive, aka Carl, my husband of almost 15 years. Carl is the kind of husband every mother hopes their daughter ends up with for the long haul. He's handsome, smart, sweet and easygoing; he's a great father; and he makes me laugh every single day. He looks good in a tool belt and, better yet, he's VERY handy with wood, cars, technology and other things that sometimes need fixing. I can fix things, but I love knowing I don't HAVE to fix things. And did I mention that he makes me laugh every day? That's saying something. For Valentine's Day, so far, he has gifted me with a lovely card, a box of chocolates and a bag of Pepperidge Farm's Brussels cookies. 

[Ever-Supportive, being ever-supportive, is off buying milk and antifreeze for my car—milk for the kids, ha—so I'm editing to add that I also got JEWELRY this year, ha!  A gorgeous pair of yellow and white gold earrings with diamonds. He surprised me at lunch—the aforementioned quiet, sans-kids, romantic lunch. This is the first jewelry since Christmas '05, and it was worth waiting for, yes indeedy. He also got the kids boxes of candy, too. He's the bestest. If you're reading this, honey, I love me some Ever-Supportive!]



Thanks for being the best husband EVER! Happy Valentine's Day, Carl!


I also love my family and friends. I feel like one of the most fortunate gals in the world to have such a wealth of great friends and a nice family, too. We never, ever get trashy and fight on the holidays! A special Valentine's kiss to Susan, my same-age aunt, who has been with me from the cradle, through thick and thin! Here we are in (for me) thinner times:

 

Happy Valentine's Day, Susan!

And my children! Oldest Son, David, has called twice to wish me a Happy Valentine's Day. Jack and Chloe both gifted me with CARS Valentines that had lemon gummy-hearts in them. Those are the things that make life worthwhile!

So, the cake is out of the oven and cooling, and I want to throw on some lipstick and go meet my handsome Valentine for lunch, but I want to send big SMOOCHES out to all my LJ friends! I hope you have a wonderful day.

XXOO 
Candie