Happy Valentines Day

Last year, at Valentines Day, I had an infant and the worst cold (flu?) of the year. I was miserable. My poor husband got me a card. I didn't get him anything. And I didn't clean the house. Or put out little I love you notes all over. Or even clean our room and put out candles. The year before that was similar since Natalie had just had an appendicitis. So, ever since I've seen the Valentines decorations going up in the store, I've been thinking about Valentines day and how I wanted to make extra sure that I did SOMETHING. Men like romance too! Did you know that?

Jon and I went to an all weekend marriage conference one year and quite frankly (perhaps I'm being too frank), it didn't do much for us. Actually, it caused a lot of conflict. I think it just made both of us have too high of expectations of the other person.

The two best things that helped our marriage were the Love Language book by Gary Smalley and just having a strong homeschool support group around between homeschool blogger and just getting to know homeschoolers in our community.

But...my point was that in all the hours we sat there in the conference, through all the conversations we had, this is the one thing I really took home from the conference. Men like romance too. It just means something different to them. It means admiration and well it means you know what. You do know what don't you?! We won't talk about that...But, the second thing I learned...(didn't I say I only learned one thing...but this is the second half of the first thing) is that you can't wait for your husband to be romantic, you have to prepare a place for romance to happen. No more complaining about your spouse not being romantic!

So here are my top 14 things I love about my husband.

14 Things I Love About My Husband

1. He makes me laugh.
2. Everything he does, he does with passion.
3. That he loves to hug me.
4. That he has eyes for me alone.
5. His smile.
6. How his heart breaks for others.
7. His toughness, which he says is there so he can protect me.
8. That he's always there ready to fight for our oneness in marriage.
9. That he walks the land and prays.
10. That he loves to hike.
11. When he stands on top of logs and trims limbs with his chainsaw.
12. His calm, relaxed voice.
13. The way he drives.
14. How deeply he loves our children.