I'm sitting here at my desk with a stack of envelopes in front of me. My six- (and a half, M-O-M, sheesh) year-old daughter and five-year-old son spent two hours asking for more paper, and more envelopes. And more paper again. And some more envelopes.

I got short with them a few times. "I just gave you a stack of paper!" and "I need some of those envelopes. You can't have them all."

My daughter spends a lot of time making invitations to her future birthday parties, so I figured that was what she was up to. My son usually spends his time drawing the same animals over and over. An elephant, a brontosaur, a penguin and a 'cantaloupe' which is really an antelope. Oh! And he draws giraffes. He also draws a representation of our van. He draws all of these things and then asks me to cut them out so that he can play with them.

I've lost my temper over that, too. I get tired of cutting out 'cantaloupes' and giraffes. When I asked him why he didn't just keep the pictures, he told me that he was using these drawings to reinact our Safari West trip, so that "it would stay alive in his heart forever." That was good for a few more cut-outs. I'm a sucker for his dramatics.

Anyway, after handing over half a ream of paper and about 30 envelopes, I caught the kids trying to sneak out the front door.

"Where are you going?" They looked at me sheepishly, and said "we're going to the mailbox to mail our letters."

I had a bunch of flylady stickers (don't ask) and they had used them for stamps. I asked them who the letters were for, and they hid them behind their backs.

"The mail carrier won't take those, I don't think, unless you have the postage."

"M-O-M-M-Y - can you go over there please?" The kids had a whispered pow-wow.

I went into the kitchen and waited. The kids came around the corner, arms linked. They smiled at me and said "Special Delivery for M-O-M-M-Y!" They pressed 20 fat envelopes into my hands. I looked at the first one.

Frume Me
Too Mommy

The next one was different.

"Mommy" was encased in a giant, crooked heart.

The third was a variation on the same theme.

I thanked the little letter writing fools, and opened the first one. Scrawled across the clumsily folded page was a drawing of an elephant with a huge smile and giant teeth. I (Heart) U Mom was written in my son's shaky hand underneath.

The next letter was more polished. I love you mommy evun if you don get me a hors. It was signed with a curly-cue flourish, this time in my daughter's cursive.

On and on I read. Each letter was different, but all of them are love notes. I'll bundle them up and put them in my keepsake box.

I feel like an ass for assuming that their use of paper (all $2 worth) and envelopes (maybe $1) was wasteful. Instead, I got 20 love letters from my two oldest children. A priceless gift, and a perfect reminder to lighten up.