Happy Valentine's Day EnviroMom-style

After nearly 4 years at the same cooperative preschool (two years for each of my girls), this remains on of my favorite directed art projects. I was the parent helper about a week ago, showing the kids how to paint some of their favorite colors onto bubble wrap, then pressing the bubble wrap onto the white heart -- resulting in very festive and fun valentines for all the parents. I especially like that as an OEC Eco-Healthy preschool, we wash and reuse the same bubble wrap each year! Yes, I'm the one who hand-washed the 19 pieces of bubble wrap this year. (Stop with the applause now. Thank you! Thank you very much!)

Not too many years ago, had I been in charge of this project, I might have groused about all that washing and reuse. No doubt, the advent of Valentine’s Day would have propelled me to follow the Valentine’s Day script: Buy Valentines’ cards from grocery store for school. Concoct some sort of fancy, romantic dinner and/or date for my husband and me. Raise high expectations for my husband to bring home a greeting card gushing with his undying love, flowers, chocolate, Champagne and jewelry.

These days, it’s not like that. We make the kids’ Valentine cards from scrap paper and old art projects. Now, they don’t have sassy sayings from Dora the Explorer or the latest Disney film. But the kids are quite proud, because they made it themselves. I like that it gives second life to the pile of art projects they bring home from school (although as my oldest gets deeper into elementary school, she brings less art and more worksheets – maybe next year we’ll have to figure out a way to reuse those worksheets!). I have no plans for a fancy, romantic dinner (Sorry, honey. It may be leftovers.)  As for the flowers, chocolates, Champagne and jewelry, I really have no interest. I’m pretty sure we still have candy hanging around since Halloween. No flowers bloom locally right now, so I’ll pass on those too – although I did see some snow drops peeking out of the ground between the endless snowstorms we’ve witnessed this winter in Portland.

For the most part, I count my blessings. I have two smart and kind little girls. I have a hard-working, creative and talented husband who provides for us all. We have local, organic food to nourish ourselves. We have shelter and security. There is no need to jump through hoops to show our love on this Hallmark holiday. However, I bet if you go to any grocery store in America today or tomorrow, you will find a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates in every cart. It’s funny that we let society set expectations for us on how we must show our love on this one specific day. Now I’m not saying it’s wrong to go out and buy those things. It’s just not what we’re doing. I think it makes more sense to buy some fair-trade chocolate when we’re out of it and we’re facing a chocolate emergency. Or buy flowers from the local farmers’ market when they are fresh and in season. I hope this Valentine’s Day finds us together, listening and dancing to one our favorite songs and not consuming just because it’s the societal norm.

What's your green spin on celebrating Valentine’s Day?