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Un-Valentine’s Day
Happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow! Whether you’re madly scrambling to pick out that perfect card on a picked over rack or you’re on hold for an hour trying to make a dinner reservation for a Valentine’s Day dinner date, you are not alone. The pressure to create the perfect Valentine’s Day is on… often deflating the romance balloon. And while it’s nice to take one day to celebrate your love, what about the other 364 days of the year? What if you celebrated your love in less spectacular Un-Valentine’s Days throughout the year instead?
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Ugh, Mom and Dad, no PDA! 🤢 (Repost)
Nick: Call it a “sixth sense,” but I can tell when my kids’ eyes are on Jen and me. I can practically hear their eyes rolling whenever we touch each other.
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Celebrate Good Times – Come On!
Julie: It’s been a party kind of month! First, we celebrated my dad’s 85th birthday, and then the following weekend, we celebrated John’s parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. Those are impressive numbers! This got us thinking about what life might be like for us if we are fortunate enough to celebrate these milestones in our own lives.
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The Spontaneity Spark
Julie John and I are both planners. We make lists and spreadsheets for everything. We research every option before making a decision. We weigh the pros and cons. Spontaneity is not something that comes naturally to either of us as individuals or to us as a couple.
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4 Ways to Keep the Sexual Pilot Light Lit
Julie – It finally happened. After two years of extreme caution, COVID finally found us. First John, then me. John? Like a bad cold that lingered. Me? Pretty much the sickest I’ve ever been in my life and still battling fatigue a month later. We didn’t kiss each other for a couple of weeks, much less think about making love. Heck, my sleeping was so erratic and restless that we didn’t even sleep in the same bed for weeks. Physical or mental illness, childbirth, surgery, kids who constantly want to sleep with mommy and daddy, changing hormones, or the death of a close family member can wreak havoc on the sexual…
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Little Things
JULIE “Little Things Mean a Lot” was one of my mom’s favorite songs. It starts off like this: “Blow me a kiss from across the roomSay I look nice when I’m notTouch my hair as you pass my chairLittle things mean a lot” These timeless lyrics are spot on – little things DO mean a lot. I do many little things for John throughout the day. I can make John’s coffee. I can scratch his head. I can make his favorite meal for dinner. I can put my phone down and listen when he tells me about his day. All of these are little things that when done with great…
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Our Wedding Vows, Revisited
“One thing I am sure of is that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?” JULIE We were recently privileged to hear these words spoken by our son, and to witness the teary, smiley, enthusiastic YES that was his now-fiancée’s response. OUR SON IS GETTING MARRIED! WE ARE GETTING A NEW DAUGHTER! Our daughter-in-law-to-be wasn’t the only one who was crying. That moment will forever rank as one of the most beautiful, emotional, joy-filled, and exciting moments we’ve ever experienced.
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Love Letters
Julie I recently rediscovered a box of love letters that my parents wrote to each other. My dad had given them to me after my mom died. My dad was drafted into the army when he and my mom were still newlyweds. There was no email, no texting, no Facetime. There was only a brief Sunday phone call and love letters Monday through Saturday. These letters were mostly about details of daily life, but they were also filled with expressions of love and longing to be together again. Their arrival was a daily reminder of their love and the commitment they had made to each other.
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30 Seconds of Passion
LARRY: When life gives you lemons (or a Covid pandemic) – make lemonade. When Covid hit, my wife Jula and I decided to turn our quarantine into a second honeymoon. We made the most of the extra time we had together by being romantic and talked about areas of our relationship that we’d actively avoided. Well …after about 6 months of this second honeymoon, life threw us a few curveballs and the proverbial ‘honeymoon wore off.’ Some months later, I had a dream where I got the idea of “30 Seconds of Passion.”
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5 Reasons You Need a Getaway Without Kids
As we placed linen napkins on our laps for a fancy dinner, we realized life as we knew it was about to change. We were soon going to become parents. We’d enjoyed two wonderful years of marriage and wondered … would this be our last Getaway alone?