Valentine Hearts

I wanted to share a tip with you that I have done in years past, with regard to using the "HEARTS" that are in the stores for Valentine Day.  Wait until Valentine Day is over, and the very next day, all the stores put their array of Valentine treats, cards, and decorations, on sale.  They usually start at 50% off, then they continue in the days following to lower their prices until sometimes I have seen them at up to 90% off.  (They do this with all their after holiday goodies!)

So why do I tell you about this in my blog?  Well ..... It's not that I love candy ( ha, ha) it is that the them of Hearts or Love can be used for so many different occasions, especially when we are talking Relief Society.  Everything that a woman does, is done with love.  Visiting teaching, compassionate service.... do you see where I am going with this???

So... I can see an entire evening of love and gratitude for sisters, using Hearts and valentine candy hearts as your theme.  Maybe a "Gratitude RS night meeting" or how about "If with all your HEART" ye truly seek him" theme, or how about "Women are the heart of the home", or how about the skit for a Visiting teaching and Home teaching conference or workshop or how about an evening of "HEART & SOLE" (play on words).  Here is the link on my blog to the rewrite that I did on that darling skit  http://visitingteachingsurprisedocuments.blogspot.com/2010/09/visiting-teaching-skit-heart-and-soul.html
The music is also included at this link, however if you just type in the words "heart and soul" and search using google images, lots of other images of variations of the music will come up as well.

There are so many scriptures that have the words heart or Love in them! Here are just a few, that I thought could be the theme for an evening, using all the cute and really cheap heart decor and candies.....

• Deuteronomy 30:6  And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. (This could be an evening focusing on raising a righteous family)

• Psalms 57:7  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise. (This could be an evening or lesson focused on Fixing (or keeping your heart focused) on serving the Lord)

• Psalms 73:26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

• Proverbs 15:13  A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance.  (This scripture can be such a great one for lesson or evening meeting focused on being happy amidst trials, or happy homemaking, or the influence a mother can have on her children through her countenance, or on and on).

• Doctrine and Covenants 25:12  For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads. (This one is obvious and would be a wonderful theme for a night of music, or sharing talents through music, or inviting the spirit through music)

These are just a very few of the Scriptures that came up when I typed in "Heart" in the  scripture search bar at lds.org. I can only imagine how many talks and wonderful gospel messages would come up if I searched all of LDS.org.   So I did and look what came up first:

The Enduring Legacy of Relief Society

• Henry B. Eyring October 2009 General Conference

...and persistent is that charity is at the heart of the society and is to come... ...the society and is to come into the heart, to be part of the very nature... ...an effect of His Atonement working in the hearts of the members.  

Other talks that followed were:  A broken Heart and a Contrite Spirit, My Heart is Happy, The measure of our Hearts,  Opening your Hearts, and on and on.  (Go on lds.org and search for those words and they will magically appear before your eyes) 

Let me conclude, lest I begin to be way to redundant, There are so many ways that you can use the theme of "Heart" and I didn't even touch the word love. Can you see why I am giving your the tip to watch for the after Valentine sales, and get all the heart things you can, and you could even stay well within your budget by getting heart things so cheap!  You don't have to just do these things at Valentines day either, but you will have all these fun and cheap treats to make your meeting spectacular! 

OK, OK, more ideas:

• heart cupcake holders, would be darling filled with cupcakes iced with a cute gummy, cinnamon heart on top!
• A darling sugar cookie centerpiece of  wrapped, Iced heart shaped cookies in a vase.  The cookies could be baked on bamboo Skewers, so that would be the stem.  Each sister sitting at the table would take one home.
• Another centerpiece idea I have used is to have the card stock hearts that they sell,  inserted into some greenery that you already have.  You could mount them on bamboo skewers and have them as plant picks. 
• Sprinkle around some candy hearts on the table for the ladies to munch on as the evening progresses.
• How about an evening for husbands and wives focused on enriching marriage.  Maybe throughout the evening, different people could share the stories of how they fell in love, or what they do to keep their love light burning. For the decorations, you could use cupids, and serve "Red food like pasta with sauce, lasagna, and Salad with red tomatoes, or the yummy spinach salad with raspberries or strawberries and the strawberry or raspberry vinaigrette dressing, and of course dessert would have to be strawberry pie or cheesecake.  Oh how my mind works... I could go on and on about this one.
• I use to live in Alpine, Utah and there is a wonderful candy store in Alpine called "The Peppermint Place".  They always have seconds of all of their candies from chocolates, to candy canes, for a fraction of the price as you would pay for firsts. They have the sugared cake decorating elements and I have bought pink hearts to put on top of my cupcakes and cookies.  That is a really great place to check out for seconds.  Easter time they always have TONS and TONS of really great finds that have to do with that holiday.

I'm done now, I have to shut down my brain.  Hope you can use some of these ideas and enjoy the fun!
Love, Katie G