Happy Valentine's Day

To all the people I love:

I just wanted to tell you that I love you. I appreciate all you do and I am thankful to Heavenly Father for the chance I be had to be a part of your life. Of course, I loved you yesterday and I will love you tomorrow. But yesterday I was doing laundry and dishes and tomorrow I’ll be buying groceries. It’s not that I don’t want you to know that I love you every day. I am grateful to have a day set aside to remember and celebrate all the people I love.

I feel like I have been surrounded by a barrage of people telling me what a horrible, commercialized holiday Valentine’s Day is. Ironically, the most frequently cited argument for this contention is that we should show our love everyday, not just on holidays. It seems like the people who feel this way ought to love Valentine’s Day the most. After all, it’s the people who think about Jesus everyday that love to celebrate his birth at Christmas. I pray in gratitude every night for my beautiful children. That is why I am so glad they have a birthday once a year where I can set aside the everyday struggles and simply celebrate their births. I am disturbed by all the people who think being ornery and feeling pestered by a holiday meant to honor the people we love is a better expression of love then being excited at the opportunity to set aside the mundane. I was even more disturbed to open up foxnews.com this morning and find a story about why everyone hates this holiday. Valentine’s Day is not about flowers and chocolates. Think about it as an opportunity to reflect on all the people who wish they had someone to celebrate with, rather than feeling bothered that you’re expected to say “I love you.” Remember how lucky and blessed you are to have love. And remember, as always, that I love you.

Fan Mail

Okay, not really, but it still made my day. This girl was in my primary class in Illinois. Her dad asked me to send her a signed copy of my book. :)

Poetry

I try to spend a little time reading with my kids individually each day. For Christmas, Grandma Hancock gave Ryan a Shel Silverstein poem book that had belonged to Nate when he was a kid. So, for the past month, we've been reading poetry for reading time. Today, Ryan finished the book. He was very excited. I told him that I like to write poetry and read him my "Dancing Leaves" poem. He declared that it was time for him to write a poem. I sat him down at the computer and told him to tell me when he was done. This is the end result and, I kid you not, the only thing I helped with was the punctuation. Even the selection of the line breaks was all Ry. He also chose the picture he wanted to go on the page with his work. Not bad for a 6-year-old. What a cute kid. :)

Why ?
By: N. Ryan Hancock

Why can you see and I
can’t? Why can you feel
and I can’t? Why can you
taste and I can’t? Why can
you hear and I can’t. Why
can you smell and I can’t?
What’s that?
Oh! You say that I can
hear and see and feel and
taste and smell.
Silly me.



Pretty good, eh? I wanted to call it "Anthem of a Recovering Liberal," But Ryan entitled it, "Why?"


Post update: When Nate read this article he commented, "That sure is a cute picture of Quentin." HA! I had to tell him that the picture is an old one of Ryan. hehehe.