Extra Special Day to Show Love ~ Happy Valentine's Day!

I ♥ Valentine's Day! Showing our love to our spouse, family, and friends needs to obviously come every day,  especially for our spouse and family - but one special day out of the year, makes it extra special to give focus on making homemade gifts and give other gifts if those choose to do so.

I am sure there are some people that don't do Valentine's Day because of the very thing I said above, that we should be showing love each and every day, and one focused day might seem silly. Some may feel that it is a stupid way for a small boost in the economy for people to purchase items for their loved one. Some see it  strictly as a couples day and should not extend to anyone else. To each their own on their feelings on this day, but for me, I look forward to Valentine's Day, simply for the extra special touches it can give, the opportunity to create something extra special and sometimes a breathe of fresh air to relationships - to your spouse, and even to your kids.

This Valentine's Day, I made the Sweetheart Journal for my spouse. The idea came to me on Pinterest, from MyCreativeStirrings.com. Instead of buying a journal, I bought a nice decorative notebook instead, which was less expensive and easier for me to put the little note inside of what the Sweetheart Journal was all about. I'm really excited to do it with my husband, and he seemed to be excited about the idea as well.

Also, from Pinterest, on the same website above, I did my own version of Can of Dates. I found an inexpensive plastic container at Walmart. And then I found some cardboard stickers that were lovey, that I attached to the container. I haven't quite completed this project, but this is part of the 2nd part of my husband's Valentine present. One thing we need to work on in our marriage is more regular date outings, so I thought perhaps if we had some ideas that we could pull out of a jar at the beginning of each month that would help us get the ball rolling better. I would add, that if one of the date ideas you pull out that is on a season that you're not in currently, just replace it with something you can do and put it back in your Can of Dates. Can't think up any ideas for several ideas for dates? If you Google "Ideas for Dates" - there are many lists that you can choose from and then add your own as well. It kind of gets the creative juices flowing and you actually start thinking about what is actually around in your own area that would be a great for dates. At the same time, I thought of many outings we can do as a family too - thinking about doing a Can of Family Outings too, kind of a bucket list for our family. Also on Pinterest, there is a list of 50 Fun and Cheap Date Ideas, which I gathered some ideas off of for our Can of Dates.

When I was little, in Elementary school, one of my most fondest memories was making a themed box of some sort to collect the Valentine's I would get from fellow classmates. I haven't had the opportunity to do that yet with my kids, but look forward to it. My oldest is only in 1st grade and they did something more simple for Kindergarten and even this year, but seeing one of the neighbor kids do an R2-D2 Valentine Box got me excited for future school years, as I was starting to think they just didn't do that anymore. It was fun nonetheless for my son to be able to pick out his Transformer Valentine cards for his classmates, and then an extra special something for his best friend. For his teachers, we made an idea from Pinterest, a teacher gift for his 1st grade teacher, assistant teacher, and music teacher "We need S'more teachers like you" -- the store even had these clever new marshmallows that are flat to fit better to make the smores treat! So cute!

The kids made daddy a Valentine by cutting a heart out of paper, writing a little note of why they love dad. A treasured item for sure!

For our neighbors and grandparents, we are doing a recipe I found on Pinterest called Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies. Only, I am going to do pink ones instead since the red food coloring was for some reason ;-) very popular right now. I love to be able to do this for neighbors too because when you otherwise don't see them all that much, it gives an extra special day to say "I'm thinking about you, hope you are doing well. Thanks for being a great neighbor!"

For the kids, we have always gotten them a little stuffed animal of some sort and sometimes a little treat. They will get those this evening.

And for me, my husband helped boost the economy a little by purchasing a Blu-ray disc of The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn Part 1. I am super excited about this because while I am a BIG fan of the books, and of the movies so far... I am okay with waiting for it to come out on DVD. But super excited to watch it this evening with my husband, yes unlike many other spouses who want to shoot these movies, my husband enjoys watching it with me. ♥

While I had plans to make heart-shaped pancakes this morning, that will have to become dinner (our family loves breakfast for dinner), since my youngest decided to wake up at the wee hours of the morning and have a little giggle chat with me, I was entirely too tired to wake up and make pancakes. My son who is in school, will get a heart-shaped sandwich and little note in his lunchbox (though I put a little note in his lunchbox every day.) Both my other kids at home will also get a heart-shaped sandwich for lunch.

So, just some ideas for your special day or future special days - and this doesn't just have to be for Valentine's day, do it just out of the blue if you'd like, but one special day to me out of the year gives a lot of focus on helping our relationships to have an extra boost in the right direction, a breathe of fresh air.

I would encourage you to customize your own Valentine's Day for you and your spouse. Every marriage is different. Don't feel like you have to live up to the Jones'. There isn't one way that is stamped of how you should go about Valentine's Day for you and your spouse or your family for that matter. You do what works for the both of you. What is important to your spouse? You don't have to go broke to show your love; and if you do go broke that will just be one thing that goes against your marriage - don't do that. Simply do what works, add a little extra special touch to this day, and do it with genuine love.

So, Happy Valentine's Day to All of You!!! ♥