Love, Affection and Appreciation

Can't believe it is February already. The month of the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500 and of course Valentine's Day. For the next couple of weeks we are going to be inundated with ads for spa treatments, romantic dinners, chocolate, flowers and more. This is a good thing, but I wish it weren't just in the month of February. Romance, affection and appreciation are a good thing all year round.

When's the last time you wrote a love letter to your spouse or a note of appreciation to your parents or a friend?

When's the last time you took your spouse out on a date or took the time to sit down with a good friend over a cup of hot tea or coffee?

Whether you are married.... or not, young or old, Valentine's Day could be a great time to kick-off a year of intentional love, affection and appreciation.

At a loss for what to do? Here are a few ideas:

• Hand write a love letter - you can actually get a Love Letter kit from www.thinkmarriage.org
• Schedule time each day to actually talk with your spouse
• Take time to meet a friend for lunch
• Tell the people you love "I love you"
• Plan a creative date for your spouse - even if you can't afford a babysitter, plan an in-home date
• Recreate your favorite date from the past
• Purchase a bouquet or a romantic gift basket from Flower Fest and support the work of First Things First
• 

• Take time to play with your children
• Give your spouse the day off and don't hold it over their head later
• Schedule a couple's massage
• Take a walk holding hands - research actually shows that a woman's blood pressure goes down when she is holding the hand of her spouse
• Do that thing that your spouse has been asking you to do for months
• Watch the Super Bowl with your spouse even if you don't like Football, you don't have to say a word, he'll enjoy just sitting should to should with you.

Lets help each other be creative. What would you add to the list???? Lets keep the list PG13 please. :-)