Happy Valentine's Day!

Occasionally, after we had our third child, strangers would comment in casual conversation that they only had two children because they couldn't afford more. I would smile, nod and make sympathetic mouth-noises but in my head I would think "Quitter. Having extra children isn't that much more expensive. "

Fast forward five years.

School starts with three Anderson children needing: clothes, back-packs, shoes, school supplies, etc... Then the financial weight of our over-population choices hit me like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden, three kids really was a lot more expensive than two.

That same feeling came creeping around yesterday afternoon as the kids and I sat down to make over eighty Valentine's for their classmates.

I even went for home-made Valentine's to try and keep costs down. We only had to buy candy and bags but it was still a lot of stuff.

They were darling Valentine's.

More importantly, the cards were perfectly appropriate for my older two children who worried about sending Valentine's with "the wrong message" to classmates of the opposite sex. We printed a picture of a fish bowl with the words "I'm glad we are in the same school" on them. Then we stuffed cellophane bags with gummy fish and the note.

They were a hit...83 times over.

Now I just have to tell Adell she cannot go to collage because we sent out Valentine's in 2012.