Paper Boxes, Paper Hearts

The lovely, old elementary school I attended

As an elementary school student, I rode the school bus to a lovely, old two-story, brick school with a belfry. Children from throughout our rural neighborhood, as well as those from within walking distance, formed the small student body in that lovely old building. 

The school stood on a lot the size of a city block. There was a big field for running, a playground for swinging, an asphalt area for jump roping or playing hopscotch, and a big sledding hill. The grounds were plentiful with trees, ideal for incorporating into our imaginative recess games or for scooping up autumn leaves to make into leaf forts or houses.

Among my favorite elementary school memories from those simpler times was the making of Valentines for our parents and the decorating of shoe boxes to hold the Valentines we would receive from our classmates. 

Valentines for our mommies and daddies were usually fashioned of red construction paper carefully traced and cut into heart shapes with little scissors. A heart-shaped paper doily would often be glued to the construction paper as the next step. Then, we would select small squares of tissue paper in various pastel hues and, using the blunt eraser end of our pencils, carefully wrap the tissue squares around the end of the pencil to form little flowers. The flowers would be glued into place with a spreader dipped into school paste. Sometimes, those little tissue flowers would form yet another heart on top of the doily. A "Happy Valentine's Day" message spelled to the best of our abilities in crayon would finish off our creations. 

Decorating a shoe box to hold the Valentines from our classmates was another enjoyable and much-anticipated classroom art project. Using wrapping paper and construction paper, along with more doilies and tissue paper flowers, we created vessels to hold those precious Valentines selected for us by our little friends. Sometimes, the Valentines would be handmade, while at other times they were purchased in a store. The handmade ones were always a favorite.

When was the last time you made a Valentine? Might this be the year to make such a gift from the heart?

Heartfelt Memories

I don't make it a practice to revisit previous posts to this blog, but here is one from February 2012 that continues to hold meaning for me:  I wasn't really in the mood to do any shopping that day but something drew me to our local St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on a recent Saturday morning.  I browsed all of the aisles and finally decided before exiting the store to look at a shoebox of Valentines.  I hadn't been thinking about buying any Valentines there but, still, I was drawn to the box.  It was strange.  I didn't just go through them once.  I felt compelled to look through them a second time.  It was during that second time that I discovered two identical Valentine postcards featuring two identical handwritten greetings -- in my late mom's handwriting.  I could barely contain myself.  I miss my mom so much and it was as if she was reaching out to me through those Valentines.  I bought both of the postcards, saving one for myself and sending the other to my aunt and uncle, my mom's sister and brother-in-law.  The postcards feature a delicate pastel design of a heart-shaped floral wreath.  Mom wrote her message to coincide with the card's design:  "Warm thoughts and wishes are flowers of the heart.  May you have a lovely Valentine's Day!"  I'm not sure if Mom recycled the cards back to the thrift store or if I was the one responsible for having done so when Larry and I cleaned out her apartment 1 1/2 years ago.  All I know is that their discovery on that recent Saturday morning was such an unexpected and precious find.  Truly, flowers of the heart from my wonderful, unforgettable mom.

Flowers of the Heart

I wasn't really in the mood to do any shopping that day but something drew me to our local St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store on a recent Saturday morning.  I browsed all of the aisles and finally decided before exiting the store to look at a shoebox of Valentines.  I hadn't been thinking about buying any Valentines there but, still, I was drawn to the box.  It was strange.  I didn't just go through them once.  I felt compelled to look through them a second time.  It was during that second time that I discovered two identical Valentine postcards featuring two identical handwritten greetings -- in my late mom's handwriting.  I could barely contain myself.  I miss my mom so much and it was as if she was reaching out to me through those Valentines.  I bought both of the postcards, saving one for myself and sending the other to my aunt and uncle, my mom's sister and brother-in-law.  The postcards feature a delicate pastel design of a heart-shaped floral wreath.  Mom wrote her message to coincide with the card's design:  "Warm thoughts and wishes are flowers of the heart.  May you have a lovely Valentine's Day!"  I'm not sure if Mom recycled the cards back to the thrift store or if I was the one responsible for having done so when Larry and I cleaned out her apartment 1 1/2 years ago.  All I know is that their discovery on that recent Saturday morning was such an unexpected and precious find.  Truly, flowers of the heart from my wonderful, unforgettable mom.