Pinterest Inspired Wednesdays - Valentines

This week, I am joining Suz from 30 Before 30 List for Pinterest Inspired Wednesdays!  If you are unfamiliar with Suz's blog, you should definitely check it out.  Hers is one of the first blogs I began reading, and I have always found Suz's writing to be both insightful and motivating.

Last week as I was browsing through pins, I came across this depiction of the bible verse Romans 12:9-10.

{Source}

This lead me to what turned out to be a delightful blog called Homegrown Hospitality.  The author, Stephanie, had posted a PDF file of a Valentine card to print on cardstock and attach to treat bags.  I instantly felt the need to create Valentine treat bags for all of my co-workers, so I started by printing the card on both salmon and white cardstock.  Several days later on Monday evening, I visited my sister's house after work and took my nieces to Wal Mart to help me pick out candy for the treat bags.  Naturally, I agonized over what to get (it's the perfectionist in me), and I ended up with five bags of candy.  Surprisingly, we could not find any treat bags throughout the many isles of Valentine's Day paraphernalia.  Just as I was about to admit defeat and simply purchase sandwich bags, we found clear treat bags in the Wilton isle.

Yum!

Upon returning to my sister's house, my nieces began distributing the candy to each of the treat bags and closing them with the provided twist ties, while I cut out the Valentines. As with any creative project I undertake, this was much more of an ordeal than it needed to be. I obsessed over cutting out the Valentine cards with perfectly straight edges, and about making sure the candy was evenly distributed between the varying types. Luckily my nieces know how to handle me and I was running short on time, so I was able to force myself to go with the flow and not focus on everything being perfect.



The Sun Chips were for the facility supervisor,
who is diabetic. 

At this point I needed to head for home, but not before giving each of my nieces and nephews a treat bag, along with my sister, her husband, and my sister's friend that was visiting.  The next morning when I arrived at work, I punched a hole in the top of each of the Valentine cards (a hole punch was the crucial tool we were missing the previous evening), and tied a card to each of the treat bags with the hot and light pink curling ribbon with which my oldest niece had provided me.  All that was left was to distribute the bags!    

       

Putting together holiday treat bags for family, friends, and co-workers used to be a regular festivity for me, but it is something I have not done in several years.  I had forgotten the joy of putting a smile on someone's face and brightening their day through such a simple act.  While I do not envision myself assembling treat bags for each holiday as I have in years past, I do plan on making more of a conscious effort to celebrate and honor those people in my life who impact it on a daily basis.

Don't tell anyone, but I kept all of the Milky
Way Midnights for myself!  (They're my favorite.)

A late Christmas wish.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Hebrews 11:1, ESV

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I read the following through Clever Girl Goes Blog.

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"My name is brandy. And I have a blog.

And a plea.

I use my blog to showcase the crazy I meet everyday, share the stories of the kids I teach and document my love for tequila, dairy products and the abdominal muscles of Ryan Reynolds. Rarely do I talk about personal issues on my blog- as personal as the dude that I adore (who I actually met through my blog- single ladies, let that be a very good reason to blog, the possibility of meeting someone as wonderful as my man), but I need your help. And it involves my dude.

He's a guy who made math comics for my class, so they would love learning about addition. He's the kinda guy who sends my friends gift cards when they are having hard times, who remembers every story I ever told him, who was the first person I celebrated with when I got a teaching job. He's the guy who sent flowers to me at school- dozens of my favourite pink roses just because he loves me. He's a guy who has spent a year patiently explaining (and re-explaining) everything there is to know about football during the important games when silence is preferred. He's made me word puzzles and comics and stayed up late playing Scrabble with me (even though I beat him almost every time). He's listened to me cry about school and family and jobs. He is everything I never knew I needed and everything I always knew I wanted.

The holidays have hit us hard. He's recently been told he may have something called multiple myeloma- an incurable cancer, that gives a person an average of five years of continued life. Though this news has came as a shock, he continues to be exactly who has always been- spending his time worrying about me, rather than worrying about himself. He's the most selfless individual I know- (he stayed late on Christmas Eve to work, so his co-workers could leave early) and a post like this would never be something that he would promote or encourage but when I'm overwhelmed and feeling helpless, the blogging community has always given me tremendous support and comfort, two things I desperately need at this time.

As I write this, the future is uncertain and we aren't sure what's happening. He'll need to see an oncologist soon, to verify what's going on in his body. My hope is that everyone who reads this think positive thoughts and if you are a person who prays, could you add him to your list? (You can refer to him as 'brandy's hot awesome dude'). If you don't pray, please keep him in your heart.This cancer is only a possibility and I believe that the prayers and positive thoughts of people can make sure it never becomes a reality.

I want to give a big thank you to the blog owner who scraped their original blog plans and graciously put this up. My goal is to get as many people as possible to see and read this post. If you are reading this and want to help, copy and paste my plea into your blog or send a link through twitter, so more people can keep him in their thoughts. I would be so very grateful (even more grateful than I am to my friend who first showed me the picture of Ryan Reynolds on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. If you haven't seen it, google it. You. Are. Welcome).

I realize this all sounds dramatic, a Lifetime movie in the making- but this is life. Right now. And I'm throwing away any hint of ego and am humbly asking for you to pray or think kind thoughts. If you are able to pass this on, thank you and if you know anything regarding MM- please email me (my email is on my blog). This isn't a call for sympathy or a plea for pity. It's just one girl hoping you can think positive thoughts for the person she adores. If my current heartache provides you with anything, let it be with the reminder that life is short, love is unbending and no one knows what could happen next. Maybe it is silly, but I really do believe that positive thoughts can make a huge difference. Thank you for reading this and if you haven't already? Please tell someone you love them today.

I did."

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