Hobbits and Moms, We Learn Things On This Journey

"There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Jonah informed me yesterday that he wanted a simple Valentine box this year. You know nothing more than a shoebox transformed into a Hobbit Hill with Bilbo Baggins' Hobbit Hole perched on the top with a round door that opens leading to a trap door where the valentines will drop down into the Hobbit Hill. I began to twitch. I had actually completely forgotten about the whole valentine box thing, as I do every year. Every year I am shocked and then perturbed that this tradition still carries on. 

I immediately consulted pinterest. I found one valentine box covered in silver wrapping paper and cluttered with some hobbit stickers. For pete's sake, there is not a single amazing mom out there who has created a Bag End Valentine Box? If there is, she isn't posting, and that I can't believe. I began to attempt to talk Jonah down. "Maybe you could just draw a really nice picture of Bag End on a crumby piece of printer paper, then we could just glue that sucker to the top of a shoebox and call it good." I watched his whole demeanor collapse. I was preparing myself for epic failure. As I was throwing another quarter in Jonah's Therapy Jar, an angel of mercy walked in through the door from school.

How I gave birth to such artistic and creative daughters is beyond me. Some mystery genes must be floating around from Grandpa Fellows and Great Grandma Essen. Sabrina walked in, rolled up her sleeves, and immediately set to work on a valentine box fit for a hobbit. Bless you, my child. Bless you. She began to transform Jonah's obscure vision into perfect fruition. He carefully supervised and did a little painting and constructed a toothpick fence to go outside Bilbo's door. 

While Sabrina and Jonah were up to their elbows in acrylic paint, I was up to my elbows in pizza dough. I was getting ready for our Valentine's Dinner. It was the kind of domestic chaos that makes me content. The kids busy creating, me kneading dough, Haydn's Cello Concerto humming in the background. Insert that ache. Jessica was playing nothing but Haydn's Cello Concerto at this time last year. I cannot hear that piece without thinking of Jess. I just wanted her back in my home again, practicing her cello, and no doubt helping with Jonah's project. 

I've been experiencing that ache more than usual lately. Perhaps it's because Jessica informed me yesterday that she had put down her deposit for housing for summer and for next school year. In other words, "Mother, I'm not coming back home. Logan is my new home." More aching. That teenage boy you see photo-bombing in the background asked me today if he could move into Jessica's room. I guess when I moved Jess out last fall, I thought she would be back in the spring. These motherhood paradigm shifts are a killer. I cried to Jess via text yesterday morning. Lots of crying and sad face emoticons. Jessica informed me, "Mom, I'm not dying." I know, not dying. Just moving on. Waaahhh!:(

But I am learning to work through the ache. There was pizza sauce to make and mushrooms to chop. We cleared the kitchen table that looked like Mount Saint Crafting had erupted and turned it into a lovely Valentine's setting.

Jonah assembled the jello parfaits. I'm so glad that someone gave us those wine glasses for our wedding twenty years ago. How else would we house our jello parfaits every holiday meal?

Candlelight is the final touch.

Jonah was a little disappointed that we were using paper plates. He likes when we pull out the nice plates. But these were cute and valentiney, and hello, 
less clean up.

I don't know what was being discussed here, but it must have been pretty serious. I believe that Sabrina was trying to come up with a Dickens character to represent each member of the family. I don't remember who she came up with for everyone, but I recall that Jonah was young Pip only less innocent and naive Sabrina says. Sisters. One minute they're making you the best valentine box ever, the next they're calling you Pip, only with more mischief.

This poor kid has been battling an ear infection as a result of a nagging cold that will not let up. He's on some pretty serious antibiotics. You would hardly know it, because the child never complains. He went to the junior high dance this afternoon. I asked him if he danced with any girls. "Oh yeah, lots!" he replied. Good boy. I tell him every year to make as many girls feel noticed and special at these dances as he can. I came home from too many junior high dances and cried myself to sleep. I hope there was at least a girl or two who went home and told her mom about the cute boy who asked her to dance.

Beautiful! Just beautiful!

There is something about dinner by candlelight that makes the conversation more pleasant, and the food just a little tastier.

How is it that my children always take better pictures than I do? I practice all of the time, and yet my kids have a perspective that is just fresh and lovely. That seems to be true of more than just photography. If I could stop, look, and be still for a moment, I might just see life the way my children do. Something tells me that that life is less complicated, less stressful, less noisy. Beautiful Simplicity! If only I could capture that more. Sabrina took the next three shots. 

I love this man. Love love love this man! He is why my life is so beautiful.

Dinner was finished. Time to blow out the candles and help Jonah with homework.

This is me doing something for the last time. After thirteen years of helping kids with valentines, I am done. No homemade valentines here folks! Just slap that name on those Fun Dips, and I'm officially retired. Phew.

We hurried and got this done because I'm in the middle of watching Ken Burns latest documentary on the Roosevelts, and I was dying to get to episode three. Nerdy, I know.

What about Jonah's Valentine Box, you ask? Here is the finished product. Isn't it just the cutest thing? Jonah plans on keeping it in his room.

A sweet sister's labor of love. 

This is my favorite detail. If you open the little hobbit door, there is a fire burning on the back wall and above it, the quote: "Not all who wander are lost."

As my baby is about to turn twelve, my heart aches for the twentieth time this week. For you see, there will be no more children in this house. Just tweens, and teens, and the occasional young adult, when she can afford to visit. I thought there would always be the pitter patter of tiny feet in my life, but I am learning as did dear little Bilbo Baggins:

"The road goes ever on and on." -J.R.R. Tolkien