Do you remember how fun Valentine\u2019s Day was when you were a kid? You would spend hours making your cute little cardboard mailbox out of the empty Quaker Oats container or an old shoe box. You would cover it with colored construction paper and then put cute heart stickers on it, and don\u2019t forget the little flag you would attach to the side with one of those metal tacks that let it go up and down when mail was put in your box. Then you would take it to school and put it on the side of your desk and wait with anticipation to see all the valentine cards and candy that was put in by your classmates.<\/p>\n
The best thing about Valentine\u2019s Day back then was it wasn\u2019t just about a romantic Valentine \u2013 it was about your friends telling you they cared about you. I think we shouldn\u2019t lose sight of that tradition as we become adults. I think we should always make Valentine\u2019s Day about more than just romantic expressions of love. I look at Valentine\u2019s Day as a perfect time to say \u201cI care and I love you\u201d to all of the people in your life. It\u2019s the perfect day to express appreciation for how much they mean to you. I will personally start the holiday off by expressing my love and appreciation to all of you. I think you are amazing and I am happy you are a part of my life \ud83d\ude42 !<\/p>\n
I wanted to share this poem as it\u2019s the perfect reminder for Valentine\u2019s:<\/p>\n
A bell is no bell \u2019til you ring it,<\/span> \u2013Oscar Hammerstein<\/p>\n So, Happy Valentine\u2019s Day, Happy Single Awareness Day, and Happy President\u2019s Day to all this weekend! How I love the beginning of a long holiday weekend!\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it exciting! An extra-long weekend to put work aside and focus on your friends and loved ones. It just makes me happy! I hope it makes all of you happy too and I hope you have an amazing weekend.\u00a0 Now go GIVE THAT LOVE AWAY!<\/p>\n And as my gift to you I am giving away one of my favorite Valentine dessert recipes that is super easy, amazingly good, and heart healthy too!\u00a0 It\u2019s from the American Heart Association\u2019s Cookbook:<\/p>\n Berry Orange Sauce over Angel Food Cake<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This easy sauce is a to-die-for topping over angel food cake<\/p>\n Cooking Instructions<\/p>\n In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice over medium heat. Stir in 1 \u00be cups strawberries. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the sugar. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the berries soften. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining berries. Serve hot or refrigerate until ready to serve.<\/p>\n With love,<\/p>\n Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you remember how fun Valentine\u2019s Day was when you were a kid? You would spend hours making your cute little cardboard mailbox out of the empty Quaker Oats container or an old shoe box. You would cover it with colored construction paper and then put cute heart stickers on it, and don\u2019t forget the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3454,3452,501,500,3451,1203,1204,2702,5879,3456,51,1099,189,30,5877,244,65,55,180,451,5874,237,5880,1005,464,3584,35,5876,529,5878,24,5875,589,193,538,3449,1932,112,145,583,81,260,579,580],"class_list":["post-5380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-heart-association","tag-angel-food-cake","tag-appreciate","tag-appreciation","tag-berry-orange-sauce","tag-care","tag-caring","tag-cookbook","tag-desk","tag-dessert","tag-family","tag-flag","tag-friends","tag-gift","tag-give-it-away","tag-grateful","tag-gratitude","tag-happiness","tag-happy","tag-heart","tag-heart-healthy","tag-holiday","tag-i-care","tag-i-love-you","tag-joy","tag-kids","tag-love","tag-love-isnt-love","tag-loving","tag-mailbox","tag-memories","tag-oscar-hammerstein","tag-presidents-day","tag-recipe","tag-romance","tag-romantic","tag-school","tag-self-improvement","tag-service","tag-single-awareness-day","tag-smile","tag-thanks","tag-valentine","tag-valentines-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5381,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5380\/revisions\/5381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n A song is no song \u2019til you sing it,<\/span>
\n And love in your heart<\/span>
\n Wasn\u2019t put there to stay –<\/span>
\n Love isn\u2019t love<\/span>
\n \u2018Til you give it away.<\/span><\/p>\n\n