It's Valentine's Day! A Small Rant, Some Ideas and a little History!

Anyone else feel like screaming "Really! It's just another Hallmark Holiday!"

Yes, I have felt like this for a very long time. Let's take this one day, in the middle of the winter, when we in the Northeast are being pounded by snow and add another stress to the mix.  Not only have some of us gained a few pounds due to the "hibernation" affect, but a lot of us are so vitamin D deficient and serotonin deficient that we just want warmer weather to come. It can be a bit disheartening to have to spend time dealing with another holiday with pressure.

Okay, enough complaining 😡  What I realized awhile ago is that a lot of people have expectations on Valentine's Day that just aren't met for various reasons and this causes some serious conflict.  I always thought it best to celebrate relationships daily and proactively rather then waiting for a handful of times per year to pull out all the stops. I'm not saying occasionally going all out is bad, it isn't. I'm also not saying not to celebrate Valentine's Day, I'm saying talk about your expectations way ahead of time.

Do you know your spouse or significant other's Love Language.  Ever heard of Gary Chapman's book the 5 Love Languages? 
http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

On his website there is a button to a free tool to learn your or your child's love language. It doesn't take too long to do, answer the questions honestly and it gives you report about yourself. If you and your significant other do this and share it with the other, it'll give you some things to talk about this year and years to follow. It helps the other person not guess so much and opens lines of communication about what we each like and don't like.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sheila Wray Gregoire's blog.  She is awesome.  You will find me linking to her posts a lot in my blog.  Check out what you get when you go to her blog and type in Valentine
http://tolovehonorandvacuum.com/?s=Valentine

She has some great tips on expectations, disappointments and a lot of great ideas.

Ever wondered Where Valentine's Day came from?  Here is a cool 2-3 minute video from the History channel.  http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day

Lacking money this year, try something sentimental.  Write that special someone a letter telling them what you like or love about them, what makes them special to you.

Have kids? Teach them a little about love languages and sentimentality with cute little homemade hearts for their family and friends.  I remember getting a homemade heart from my oldest niece when I was a teenager and I came across it a few years ago when I was cleaning out some old stuff.  It was so cute.

So, what am I doing for Valentine's Day? Well, my husband & I don't celebrate it. Mostly because our anniversary was at the beginning of February. But, sometimes we trade letters or something like a chocolate bar that we like.  Our kids have done the normal exchange of goodies or cards with their classmates at school and they also got together with my sister to make and decorate heart shaped cookies.  I would do this, but my cookies turn out awful and no one wants to eat them. My sister's cookies however are something special and it gives them some quality time with her as well.

Here's some biblical verses on Love:   http://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/love-bible-verses/

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.