heart attack (the good kind)

Like almost everyone else in the country, my plans for yesterday went sideways due to the weather. What do you do with a day at home that you didn’t know you were going to have? Well, first you take a nap. Then you make valentines. Lots of them.

Two years ago, while wasting time on the internet, I read this blog post about a family valentine activity called “heart attack”. The idea is that everyone in the family has an opportunity to openly tell everyone else in the family why they are loved. I’ll be honest. I never thought the kids would go for it, but it happened to be Super Bowl Sunday so I had time on my hands, and I happened to have pink and red paper. I started cutting hearts and told the kids we were doing this.

I got only slight resistance but everyone participated. It was fantastic. So fantastic that we did it again last year.

This year, heart attack was requested. By a teenager. Wait, did you read that correctly? Yes, you did. Requested by a teenager. I absolutely love this activity. I love reading what the kids have to say about each other. And I love that they have to say something nice even if they aren’t feeling the love in that very moment. And it seems that the kids love it too.

So yesterday, when snow kept me at home, I began cutting hearts. 81 hearts. One for each person to write something that they love about each other person and maybe a few to spare. And the little people went for it. They can’t yet write anything but their names, but they have already made their hearts for each of their siblings, each of their grandparents, and their parents. Spreading the love, one heart at a time.