Valentimes Day

We had a fun Valetines Day this year with lots of hearts involved. Van made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and I made heart shaped brownies for dessert. It's been my tradition each year to make a heart shaped yummy baked good for Van, and it was fabulous brownies this year. Yummm.
I spent the friday before Valentines day making sugar cookies. I found some really cute new cookies cutters that I love and cut to my hearts content. It was the anniversary of loosing my mama 10 years earlier, so it was a nice way to spend the day. Making Valentines treats was one of the last activities that we did together. We put together packages with homemade pecan rolls, cookies and other things to send to family. I remember thinking it strange that we were all still eating the treats she had made even after she was physically gone. I enjoyed having time to think of her and remember so many wonderful experiences with her as I rolled and cut out the cookies. Needless to say, with so m any brownies and cookies around, we were a little treated out (which rarely happens for us) after Valentines was over. :)

Van's Valentines gift to me was a surprise date to the Colorado Home and Garden Show downtown. Our friends watched Daphne and we headed to the convention center to peruse all of the booths. Van knows I'm fanatical about booths---and my home and garden--so it was perfect. We wandered around and enjoyed watching peoples faces as they tried to sell us their goods and heard our response that we didn't own a home--we're just renting. I'm sure they wondered why we were there. Van's valentines gift to me was supposed to be the date and lunch, but I managed to convince him into getting me something else. We are now the proud owners of the Worm Bin 360. Not many women can say that they received that from their husbands for Valentines Day! :) I'm excited to get our little crawlers eating and producing the deep, dark, rich compost that we will enrich our garden with. If you don't know anything about vermicomposting, you should. It's pretty cool. Anyway, we'll likely schedule a trip to meet Michael Kane, "the worm baron" in the next several weeks to go pick up our worms. I am so looking forward to spring and gardening!