Valentines, mirrors and $7 light bulbs.

This mid-day update is brought to you by the munchkin, who after throwing up at school is now very happily playing with his trains. I'm hoping this is just a tummy bumble and not some new strategy for avoiding things he doesn't really want to do.

So I was shaving my legs, twisted a little and that back muscle that caused so much pain last week gave a little pop and a major twinge. Now I'm not back to the complete agony I was in then, but I'm feeling a bit more respectful of it.

I can not believe the price of things. I budget a healthy amount for groceries and sundries and I just raised it but son-of-a-gun I'm spending more than bugeted again.

So I looked at the reciept closely and if I'd give up my diet dr. pepper adiction that would help, but the thing that floored me was the $7 light bulb. Geeze that's a lot for something that's not gonna last at all.

The kitchen and family room and stairway to the basement all have these can lights and they work best with floodlight bulbs in them, but at that price I'm thinking I should get God's own sunshine or something.

So valentine's day is coming. I sat on Saturday with munchkin while he lettered out names on 23 valentines for his classmates. He did them all himself (which is obvious when you look). And he insisted on doing them all at once. I'm convinced valentines should be left to the kids.

I have no idea what DH will do for the holiday (or our anniversary 5 days later). The past couple years it's been a couple filet migon (in lieu of chocolate) but I'm not doing Atkins any more, so I'm not sure that's the best choice.

Needless to say I'm not comfortable giving him some mushy card. If you know me and him you understand. On the other hand his to me probably will be exceedingly mushy and will feel to me like just so many words.

I like to think of love as a verb. Sure you can feel love, but it's the actions that define it.

And mirrors. Not the kind you can look in. The kind that don't really exist. The ones that show not what we look like but what kind of a person we are. Go back to that previous sentence - they don't exist.

If we look at what someone says about us and think that defines our self, it doesn't. It defines their self.

I firmly believe that a person who would make a comment about what kind of person someone else is has said far more about themselves than about anyone else. They show their jealousy or anger, their pain or insecurity, or alternately their esteem or love. If you as the object hold that up as a mirror you will only see their feelings reflected. You can bask in the glow or cringe at the ugliness but you have to remember what you see is not you.