The Guest Room

I shared this blog post last year and thought it would be fun to resurface the ideas in light of the love week! 😉 Only this year – I’m adding one more! Because it’s a leap year now and the extra day of the month deserves an extra idea!

So here’s my bonus idea for Valentines Day 2020: Think of a way you can point your love to Jesus! All the romance of this holiday is wonderful, but it’s easy to love each other well when every commercial is reminding you to be thoughtful and there’s literally a day on the calendar telling you to go on a date! What about the other 364 (or in this year’s case 365!) days of the year?! The ones when it’s harder to put each other first and there are dishes to do and the romance just doesn’t come as easily? Those are the ones I’m more interested in learning how to do well! To love one another exceptionally in the mundane. And you know how you do that? By pursing God first, each other second, and everything else after! This is a priority order I’ll stand by and preach all day! Because I’ve seen it prove true in relationships I look to as examples that have stood the test of time and I’ve seen it prove true in my own.

We’ve been working on holding each other accountable to spend one-on-one time with the Lord each day because we know, ultimately, it’s the best thing we can do to strengthen our marriage! To help, I got Jordan an early valentines day gift – a new study bible from HeReadsTruth! He’s so excited about all the tools it includes to help Him really dig deeper in the word and I’m so happy to be pointing him closer to Jesus. That’s THE best way we can love one another and it’s my best tip for a relationship spark that will last past the holiday! If you want to check it out for yourself or gift a HeReadsTruth study bible to the man in your life, you can use the code HEREADS50 here to get it half off!! AND you can even enter to win a free bible here!! Happy Valentines Day to YOU! 😉

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My very first real date was on Valentines day in 2009 (with my then childhood crush/now husband!) We ate a heart shaped pizza and went to a movie… good times 😉 It has been so special to call him my valentine through so many stages and seasons of life, but it makes coming up with fresh and thoughtful ideas tricky! We’ve spent a LOT of Valentines Days together! So here I am, once again, trying to come up with a new way to say “I LOVE YOU!”

Some people love the love holiday and others love to hate it. Personally, I’m all about making a big deal of the small things because if we don’t actively pursue and spoil and instill in each other love and value when we have the chance, who will?! Every year as I was growing up, my parents were sure to make my sisters and I feel extra loved on Valentine’s Day. It was something I could expect. I always looked forward to the holiday because I knew the people I loved would go out of their way to make me feel extra special and remind me that I was loved by them and worthy of being made to feel special! Memories like that contributed to me becoming a woman who understood her worth. I had high expectations of the man I chose to marry and I was unwilling to spend time on someone who wouldn’t love me with the same intention. That pursuit didn’t end when we got married. It’s more important than ever! It’s why Jordan and I continue to take advantage of little opportunities to remind each other that it’s an honor to love one another. I plan to continue this tradition as long as we live and to start it with our son as soon as he knows what’s going on. No matter how many mini valentines we welcome into our family, Jordan will always be my first valentine and so I will continue googling and Pinteresting my little heart out to love creatively in whatever season we find ourselves in each year.

Here’s a few of my favorite ideas from past years + some fun ones we’ve never tried. Hope they help you show a little extra love this week! 🙂

28 out-of-the-box ways to love your Valentine this week

1. Recreate your first date

2. Have a meal in an unexpected/sentimental place

3. Plan a surprise overnight adventure

4. “Camp” in the backyard or build a fort in the living room

5. Go to a cooking class

6. Grab ingredients at a grocery store and cook a new meal at home together (watch someone teach you on the cooking channel!)

7. Make them an old school playlist of songs that remind you of them

8. Create something together: find plans on Pinterest and complete a DIY project

9. Have a themed date night (ex: decorate the house like a place you dream of traveling to, listen to music and eat food from that area!)

10. Go to a “paint and sip” night

11. Get supplies and set up your own “paint and sip” at home with Bob Ross on Netflix

12. Make them a sentimental gift that they’ll save forever

13. Write your love story for them to keep

14. Go to a local theater production

15. Make them the biggest card they’ve ever seen

16. Write them progressive love notes that they’ll find and read throughout the day

17. Have a photo shoot together (use that self timer!)

18. Plan a scavenger hunt with a date or gift at the end

19. Recruit friends to deliver them surprises throughout the day

20. Serve another couple together by offering to watch their kids for the evening

21. Drive through beautiful neighborhoods or country roads and share your goals with one another… Dream together (write them down to look back on someday!)

22. Check something off each of your bucket lists (and/or make a bucket list together!)

23. Wake up extra early and start their day off with a special breakfast

24. Try a new experience that neither of you have ever done before

25. Ding dong ditch your friends and family with anonymous kind gestures

26. Do something touristy in your own town that you’ve never done

27. Go on a progressive dinner date (bonus: try all new places!)

28. Go down memory lane: drive around to sentimental places and relive your special memories

Even if you don’t choose to celebrate the holiday in a big way, it doesn’t mean you don’t love big!… but I hope I’ve convinced you to make an extra effort this year! It’s doesn’t require a lot of money. Just a little creativity!

I’m off to finish some goodie making with my mini valentine!  Little pro tip from my instagram… Keep some themed sprinkles on hand so you can add them to any treats throughout the year and automatically make them “festive”! 😉

 Share this graphic (below) to your instagram, share this blog to your Facebook, or pin it! Let’s encourage each other to love well more than ever this year! 🙂

Lots of love to you!