My heart is always there but sometimes the hands of the clock move faster than my own in getting Valentines made. So at some point after the dishes are done and the bedtime hugs have been given I hungrily claim a moment to make a Valentine that’s long on thought but short on time.

I saw in the current issue of Martha Stewart several envelopes that had been adhered to one another to make an accordion folder in which one could include tickets or gift cards. As the mom of a 9-year-old girl, I’ve decided that the real gift is often the real-life Hall Pass. It’s the gift of being given a break, which we grown-ups can sometimes forget that children need as much as we do.

So I licked 5 envelopes and stuck them together in an accordion a la Martha but I stuck a different kind of gift card in them–the one that gets you out of a chore every now and then. On the envelopes are the words “Would you like a break today?” She’ll be able to turn in one card for the night when she just doesn’t want to have to set the table for dinner and another for the morning that she wants to leave her bed a mess (yes, we know that we are the only parents in the US other than the Obamas apparently who make their children make their beds every day). On another day she won’t just get the apple slices and almonds for her after-school snack, there will be an all-out, over-the-top, not-so-healthy snack because sometimes it’s great to have a banana split instead. And I know our daughter well enough to know that part of the gift is knowing that she has all of these cards at her disposal and can decide when she wants to use them.

As for Bill, he will have to settle for more feeble words that can’t possibly describe how much I love him.