Valentine's Day Archives • Page 3 of 4 • New Nostalgia

FUN/DIY/ Mothers Day/ Valentine's Day

A Gift Of Love In A Jar

This is a fast, fun way to tell someone how much you love them.

Supplies:

1 jar

1 lid

Fun Paper

Ribbon

Glue Gun

Embellishments

A Tag

~Cut a circle out of paper (I used a circle cutter, love that thing!) Glue it to the top of the jar.
~Cut strips of paper, write reasons why you love the one you are giving it to. (could do memories and make it a memory jar, too)
~Put the paper in the jar, screw on the lid and tie it with a ribbon.
~Add an embellishment, if desired.
~Add a tag

This makes a great Mother’s Day Gift, and would also make a great Valentines Gift! My little girl helped me make one for her Grandma for Mother’s Day, then surprised me by making one for me all by herself! Here is what she had to say on her strips of paper..
I love you because:
“You take me on dates”
“You made us art bags”
“You let us have guinea pigs”
“The look on your face at the pool”–huh??:)
“You created charts for us”
“You take us on picnics”
“You started rocks” (our new behavior system)
“You clean the kitchen”
“You got my bed fixed”
“My birthday party”
“You let us eat hot dogs from the grill sometimes”
“You made a garden”
“You let us move to (the city we live in)”
Awww, so sweet! She even put a fuzzy baby chic in my jar that would tweet whenever I shook the jar 🙂

Love/ Spiritual/ Valentine's Day

3 New Loves

I was not going to post tonight, but then I was looking at the different blogs I read on Google Reader, and once again found some great stuff I have to share with you, but I will be quick!

Love has been the theme of the day, as it is February 14.

Happy Valentines Day!

3 Loves connected for me by my Ultimate Love–Father God.

Here are 3 new loves of mine:

1. Grooveshark
I was reading my friend, Kristin’s blog, the_uncomplication_project, and she wrote a fun little post about a springtime music playlist. She listed some great songs, (go look!) then suggested groveshark.com. Here is what she has to say about it:

“For free listens, visit Grooveshark and search for any song. You can create spur-of-the-moment playlists from just about any song. It’s free & they don’t put any ads in the middle of your music!”

I was intrigued and bookmarked the site.

2. Meteor Shower by Owl City
I finished up reading Kristin’s post, and was still on Google reader came upon my sister’s new blog, “Beauty Divine.” She just moved to Kansas, and boy do I miss her, so to read her blog does my heart much good. She just oozes beauty, inside and out, so check out her beautiful blog and experience some!

Today she wrote a post about some of her “loves,” and one of them was a song called Meteor Shower by Owl City. I got excited the minute I saw a music recommendation by her, she is the queen of great music finds. My sis posted these lyrics which intrigued me…

“I can finally see that you’re right there beside me / I am not my own, for I have been made new / Please don’t let me go, I desperately need you / I am not my own, for I have been made new / Please don’t let me go, I desperately need you.

Those lyrics just hit a chord with me, as they express much of what I have been feeling lately, which I will explain more in my love number 3. I remembered Kristin’s suggestion to go to Grooveshark to listen to any song, so I headed over there to check out Meteor Shower. Let me tell you, I played the song 3 times and the sound of it brought my girls running, and they all had it memorized by the last play. I loved it.

3. A book called “Identity”
It is actually a study book, from the Connect series. I am part of a Women’s Bible Study group that meets once a week. We just started this book, and I can’t tell you how much I think we are going to grow and learn. I am so excited! This is from their website:

What Is CONNECT?

The Connect series invites you to have your whole person changed from the inside.

visually engaging and relationally interactive
relevant to real-life issues
deeply biblical and rooted in Scripture
geared for people wherever they are in their spiritual and life journeys

If I were to summarize my feelings about starting this study, the lyrics to the song above would just about do it. The study is about who I am, because of who God is, and what it means to be made ‘new.’ The song above could be our studies theme song!

I love it when God puts things into my life that continue to show me that He is active and present and thoughtful of me- like a song that expresses my heart because of a book I am reading, that I could easily listen to thanks to Kristin’s music site recommendation

Love/ Spiritual/ Valentine's Day

The Very Best Valentine

For many people, Valentines Day can be a drag.

A reminder of what you don’t feel.

A reminder of a desire that has not been granted.

A reminder that even if you have a love, they will never fulfill the void.
A reminder of a heart that is broken.

If you are one of those people, I want you to know that

YOU ARE LOVED

by the very God who created you, exactly how you are, RIGHT HERE. RIGHT NOW. He is a personal God, who cares about every one of your desires and wants to fulfill them. He is a God who takes broken hearts and makes them whole again. If Creator God were to write you a Valentine, I believe it would go something like this. These words come straight from His Word.

Listen, YOU WHO ARE LOVED, and know.

My Child,

You may not know me,
but I know everything about you.
Psalm 139:1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up.
Psalm 139:2

I am familiar with all your ways.
Psalm 139:3

Even the very hairs on your head are numbered.
Matthew 10:29-31

For you were made in my image.
Genesis 1:27

In me you live and move and have your being.
Acts 17:28

For you are my offspring.
Acts 17:28

I knew you even before you were conceived.
Jeremiah 1:4-5

I chose you when I planned creation.
Ephesians 1:11-12

You were not a mistake,
for all your days are written in my book.
Psalm 139:15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth
and where you would live.
Acts 17:26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Psalm 139:14

I knit you together in your mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13

And brought you forth on the day you were born.
Psalm 71:6

I have been misrepresented
by those who don’t know me.
John 8:41-44

I am not distant and angry,
but am the complete expression of love.
1 John 4:16

And it is my desire to lavish my love on you.
1 John 3:1

Simply because you are my child
and I am your Father.
1 John 3:1

I offer you more than your earthly father ever could.
Matthew 7:11

For I am the perfect father.
Matthew 5:48

Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand.
James 1:17

For I am your provider and I meet all your needs.
Matthew 6:31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

Because I love you with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah 31:3

My thoughts toward you are countless
as the sand on the seashore.
Psalms 139:17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

I will never stop doing good to you.
Jeremiah 32:40

For you are my treasured possession.
Exodus 19:5

I desire to establish you
with all my heart and all my soul.
Jeremiah 32:41

And I want to show you great and marvelous things.
Jeremiah 33:3

If you seek me with all your heart,
you will find me.
Deuteronomy 4:29

Delight in me and I will give you
the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37:4

For it is I who gave you those desires.
Philippians 2:13

I am able to do more for you
than you could possibly imagine.
Ephesians 3:20

For I am your greatest encourager.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

I am also the Father who comforts you
in all your troubles.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When you are brokenhearted,
I am close to you.
Psalm 34:18

As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart.
Isaiah 40:11

One day I will wipe away
every tear from your eyes.
Revelation 21:3-4

And I’ll take away all the pain
you have suffered on this earth.
Revelation 21:3-4

I am your Father, and I love you
even as I love my son, Jesus.
John 17:23

For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed.
John 17:26

He is the exact representation of my being.
Hebrews 1:3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you,
not against you.
Romans 8:31

And to tell you that I am not counting your sins.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

His death was the ultimate expression
of my love for you.
1 John 4:10

I gave up everything I loved
that I might gain your love.
Romans 8:31-32

If you receive the gift of my son Jesus,
you receive me.
1 John 2:23

And nothing will ever separate you
from my love again.
Romans 8:38-39

Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party
heaven has ever seen.
Luke 15:7

I have always been Father,
and will always be Father.
Ephesians 3:14-15

My question is…
Will you be my child?
John 1:12-13

I am waiting for you.
Luke 15:11-32

Love, Your Dad Almighty God

Father’s Love Letter
© 1999 – 2010 Father Heart Communications
www.FathersLoveLetter.com

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FUN/DIY/ HEALTH/ Healthy Eating/ How-Tos/ RECIPES/ Valentine's Day

Fun For Kids Food!

Thinking outside the lunchbox.

What little one would not want to eat this? Read more here.

Something that surprised me when I started blogging was COMMUNITY. I had no idea I would ‘meet’ such great people. There are many amazing mom bloggers that I have learned so much from, and have had a great time commenting back and forth with. I’d like to introduce you to one of them. Her name is Sarah, from For The Love Of Naps. Isn’t that a great title? She is a “Lover Of Naptime,” the mom of two young boys, and she “takes each day, starts fresh, and tries to learn moment to moment.” Her perspective on life and parenting is one to be admired. This quote is under her header on her blog:

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”
-Anna Quindlen(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11)

Yep, she ‘gets it,’ and I love reading and learning from someone who does! She has a great way of seeing things through the eyes of children and instinctively knows what would delight them. Here are a few fun food posts of that in action, shared with her permission. Read on, then take some time to go visit her, here.

Just in time for Valentines Day, a healthy- for- your- heart breakfast.

See how she did it here.

She created some love at lunchtime, read about it here.

If she lived closer, I’d invite myself over and just hope she would serve food

on a toothpick! She even suggested making little mini pea kabobs, so cute.

How blessed are her boys? Brings this verse to mind:

“Her children get up and give her honour, and her husband gives her praise…Proverbs 31:28

FUN/DIY/ Love/ Seasonal/ Valentine's Day

Going Green Valentine Holders

I was encouraged by Destri over at the Mother Huddle to do a Valentine version of these “Going Green Gift Card Holders.” I thought it was a great idea and eventually got around to it!

*I made a homemade template. I hope the measurements are helpful.

*Trace the template onto the inside of a grocery sack.

*Fold in all 4 sides.

*Punch holes with hole punch.

*Fill it with a lil’ somethin’ somethin’

*Add ribbon and decorate however you desire.

{could make holes bigger and use a pixie stix treat}

A little valentine love note can be placed inside, or a gift card -I personally would take coffee shop gift card over fresh flowers, any day! I plan on making some for my kids and husband. I’ll let you in on a little secret…ready?

I didn’t make my girls classroom valentines homemade…shhh!

I by no means have enough patience to make 3 classrooms, 21ish kids each, all homemade valentines. I’ve seen some of you do it, and I am amazed, but it’s not for me. I got our classroom valentines from Target on special 2/1! Ya know, the boxed ones that come with a treat and envelope? Easy.Yay.

I DO have enough time and patience to make them for my girls and husband.

My kids will have little love notes and candy on theirs, my husband…hmmm…can you handle another secret? Like, a Victoria’s Secret? shhh…

His will contain a gift card to Victoria’s Secret, for me to use, of course! Quite brilliant in my book. A gift for him that allows me to go out and shop (alone without the kids, yippee!) and in the end make us both happy..I hope!:) (my parents and grandparents are all closing their eyes and shaking their heads right now..hee hee)

Gotta Love Valentines Day!

FUN/DIY/ Valentine's Day

Homemade Valentine Gift Bags Made From Envelopes

I did a post on “Going Green Packages and Toppers” around Christmas time. These little bags are inspired by the ones I posted about from “How About Orange..” I decided to try them in a Valentine’s theme because most Valentine treats are small and would fit perfectly in these bags. We always have envelopes laying around, so it is a great way to use them up!

I made this little heart shaped pom-pom by using silver twist ties, inspired by these from Nice Package.

I wanted to get more creative with labels, but I couldn’t get my setting right on the printer for envelopes, so I gave up after the heart print. I was really wishing I was a stamper right about then, I know there are some really great Valentine stamps out there, which would be easy and look great.

Instead, I just kept them minimal. I plan on filling these with treats and love notes, and sitting them at the breakfast table on Valentine’s day for my 3 little sweets!

I Whipped Something Up @ The Girl Creative

Making The World Cuter Monday @ Making The World C.U.T.E.R.

Talented Tuesday @ My Frugal Family