14 Days of Love

I hate/completely despise/loathe/can't stand/am repulsed by/resent even just thinking about what to get/do for Colten for Valentine's Day. Every. Single. Year. He's a typical guy, for the most part. He gets his hands dirty, isn't overly sensitive or romantic, loves playing video games and anything camouflage. 
With that in mind, what the heck do you get for your man for Valentine's Day?! That runs through my mind every year, until now. In doing some actual research and scouring Pinterest, I came across a blog {surprise, surprise right? ;)} that had me at:  So remember how I kinda neglected my husband on Christmas.
Tiffany over at Raising Lemons posted about her idea for Valentine's Day last year, and I was hooked instantly. Check out her post {here}. Her idea was to go along with the catchy '14 Days of Valentine's' theme for her husband, but with a twist. Instead of doing corny little gifts every day {"I chews you," with chewing gum...}, she decided to focus on her husband's love language. Umm, thank you! From there, my 14 Days of Love commenced. 

Immediately, I knew I would be doing that this year, so I began on the several daunting tasks that laid ahead of me. I would start on February 1st and the last day would be on the 14th, Valentine's Day. First up: the list. I knew that Colten's love languages are acts of service and physical touch. How do I know? Well, he took the quiz, of course! Yes, there's a quiz. If you don't know what the love languages are, head over here to check them out! Since Colten tied on these two, I decided to incorporate them both into our 14 Days of Love. 
THE LIST 1. long kiss
2. wash dishes
3. foot massage
4. make the bed
5. buy groceries
6. long embrace
7. cook dinner
8. hold hands at the movie
9. breakfast in bed
10. 30 minute massage
11. laundry 
12. snuggle while watching tv together
13. Ace duty
14. full service 
Up next was creating a banner that would hold/display each day's surprise. Again, I went with Tiffany's idea but made it my own. I started with a trip to Hobby Lobby - where else? I purchased a pack of the mini craft sacks in brown, a tiny heart box {to trace the hearts}, and paper! 

I traced hearts onto some heart paper I purchased and cut them out. 

  Then, I numbered the hearts 1-14 and glued each one onto a craft sack! Seriously easy stuff here, y'all. 

  Next up were the cards - I used cardstock, cut them to size using the measurements of the craft sacks (2.5"x4") and then wrote the "physical touch" and "acts of service" activities on them. 

I then used jute that I already had at home to hang on our bar in the kitchen and attached the sacks using mini clothespins that I had purchased previously for my thankful tree. {Sorry about the unbelievably blurry pic on this one...}

We're on day 13, and Colten is loving it! I had to get a little creative for day 1 because we were out of town for the weekend. I wrote him a letter explaining the 14 Days of Love idea and even kissed the letter by signature for an extra special touch! I rolled up the letter, added day 1's card, and tied it together with some jute. Then, all I had to do was keep my big mouth shut until February 1st when I could finally reveal my plans! It's hard for me to keep a surprise a secret, so I was definitely tested. But, I did it! He really enjoyed the idea and has been looking forward to each day's activity. 
It's just a special way to really show your spouse that you love them {on a budget}, and what better way to do that than through their love language?! I considered our schedules in planning out each day's activity, and I definitely rearranged the order as we received our work schedules and things came up. It worked out because he didn't know what the next day held anyway, as long as he didn't snoop! 
Instead of just doing little things around the house, I added just a few extra surprises in the mix, such as a movie night! I incorporated the "physical touch" aspect by holding hands during a movie and will surprise him with movie tickets after he opens the card {that's tonight's plan}. I received an email from Treat.com that presented an opportunity to personalize my 14 Days of Love even further! I will be able to present the tickets in a personalized card, just for him! I was blown away by the cards from Treat and the ease of creating them! 
Treat.com is a Shutterfly affiliate that specializes in personalized greeting cards. I love what they say on their website: "Relationships aren't cookie cutter, so why should greeting cards be?" Seriously though, what a great idea! You're able to customize a card for any occasion {Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, sympathy, thinking of you, etc.} for anyone on your list! All you have to do is create an account {for free} and get to personalizing! With an account, you can set up reminders about something coming up that needs a card, schedule a card to be sent in the mail, and even send digital cards if time isn't on your side! 
I received two cards, one for Valentine's Day, and one to hold the surprise movie tickets and just to tell Colten that I love him. Look at how great they turned out...

The cards are way more gorgeous in person! The picture quality is clear {as long as you've uploaded a good picture} and the cards themselves are super thick! I chose to have them mailed to me so that I could give them to Colten myself, but Treat also provides the option to mail a card directly to the receiver. Super convenient! I know I'll be doing business with this company in the future. What better way to show a loved one you care than by personalizing a greeting card they can cherish forever?! No more cards being thrown away, people. This is a new era. 

No more missed birthdays, long checkout lines
or last-minute drugstore dashes.

We make it easy to stay thoughtful all year long—from the comfort of your couch.

*via*

The 14 Days of Love was a big commitment to take on, but I'm so glad I did! I was held accountable for all the things I said I would do, and by doing it through Colten's love language, I was really able to focus on loving him and not be distracted by my own wants and needs. It's definitely a Valentine's Day we won't forget!  
**I was not compensated financially for this post. I received these cards from the kindness of Treat's social media team. The opinions are 100% my own**

Safe Travels.

Hello last work day of this week! I think {and I'm sure you all agree} that all work weeks should be three days long with a four day weekend! Doesn't that sound gloriouis?! And as an added bonus today, it's only half of a work day! Yep, I'm out of here at noon! Hooray! But then it's home to pack, pack, pack! We have a lot of traveling ahead of us for the rest of this week, and I can't wait!   Family.   Fun.   Food.   Friends.   Festivities.   What more do ya need?!   I'm not sure, but wherever you're headed, stay safe {and warm}! :-)        And in other news, check out the new system for the Cara Box Exchange over at Wifessionals! I'm pretty excited! Sign-up ends December 3rd, so head on over and check it out!  

Halloween {History}

I don't do Halloween. And by that, I mean that we do not decorate our home with all things spooky or haunting. We don't anxiously anticipate what costume we will wear this year. We don't go to Halloween parties. We just don't do Halloween.

However, this isn't because I hate the holiday. I'm simply indifferent to it. It comes and goes year after year, and I watch as millions of people spend a fortune on costumes and candy, enjoying every spooky minute. I don't hate it, and I don't love it. It simply is what it is.  But it wasn't always this way.  As a kid, I remember dressing up in costume for Halloween with my brother and sister and go around town trick-or-treating with our parents. We loved it! My mom would decorate the house with fake spiders, spiderwebs, witches, and pumpkins...it was part of the 'holiday season' that came around this time of year. It was great! So, what happened?

I grew up. As a child, I didn't know the meaning behind the holiday. And to be honest, I still don't. Our parents made sure we participated year after year growing up, but now that I'm on my own, I don't make it a priority. It's not important to me. But that got me thinking - what the heck is Halloween anyway?! Why do we do what we do? Why do we go around begging for candy in crazy costumes? Well, that got me researching the history of Halloween, and thus, this post. The following information can be located here and here. As it turns out, there's a lot of information!

Halloween dates back to the anciet Celtic festival of Samhain (sah-win). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France celebrated their new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year often assicated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31st, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble & sickness and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Celtic priests to make predictions about the future, which were an important source of comfort and direction during the dark, long winter. Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them. Children would go from house to house in costumes, asking for treats with the question, "Trick or treat?" The trick part of the question was a threat to the homeowner that if they did not receive a 'treat', a trick would be played on the homeowner or his property. Today, it has become socially accepted that if you live in a neighborhood with children, you better have some candy to give out!

By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with an supplanted the older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2nd All Souls' Day - a day to honor the dead. It is believed that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, devils, and angels. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Celebration of Halloween was very limited in colonial New England due to the rigid Protestant belief systems. It was much more common in the southern colonies of America. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween emerged. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing. In the late nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants, espeically of those fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, and it helped to popularize Halloween nationally. In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, witchcraft, and pranks. Thus, Halloween parties became the most common way to celebrate, which focused on games, food and costumes. There was also encouragement to remove any and all things grotesque and frightening out of the holiday, which resulted in Halloween losing most of its superstitious and religious affiliations by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1950s, Halloween evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young {maybe that's where my lack of Halloween-ness comes into play...}. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved into classrooms and homes, where young children could be accommodated. By this time, the old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. In theory, families could prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it America's second largest commercial holiday {behind Christmas of course}.

Today, kids all over the world are super excited to dress up in costumes and go door-to-door to consume crazy amounts of candy. Today, Halloween is 'fun'. Businesses everywhere may have a fall festival, costume contests, and good clean fun. I know we are! I also know there are hundreds of thousands of haunted houses across America that you can visit. There are tons just in town! And I'm too much of a wuss {to be honest} to even step foot near one! Seriously...I don't do scary! But, no matter the reason you're excited about today {or not so excited, whatever the case may be}, be safe out there and have fun! I will be chillin' on my couch with my husband, sister, and our puppy watching Halloweentown movies on Disney. That's just how I roll! And I am not ashamed!

So, my lack of Halloween-ness isn't because I feel it's a strictly Pagan holiday or that I'm too religious to celebrate. It's because I'm lazy and I just don't do Halloween.  But, you can pretty much 100% guarantee that once I have children of my own, this will change! :)

And, I'm really loving Elizabeth's post about why she celebrates Halloween! Go check it out!

 

Home of the Free BECAUSE of the Brave

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!       Today is a day to celebrate our freedom and independence!  It's taken for granted much too much these days, so we need to be thankful for our freedom!    We are blessed that our soldiers sacrifice their own lives so that we may live free - so that we may make decisions for ourselves every single day.    THANK YOU - to all of our troops fighting for our freedom!    HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!  It truly is home of the free because of the brave.  And brave they are.

{Dear Dad}...

Happy Father's Day!   Today is a day set aside to really celebrate the wonderful fathers in our lives.  And my dad is no exception!  He has played a monumental role in my life, and I know that he will continue to do so for the rest of my life.  I love and cherish my dad every.single.day.  And in honor of Father's Day, my all-time favorite picture of my dad and me. :-D  

My father is my hero.  He knows it.  I know it.  We all know it.  Although I may not communicate that enough, it doesn't take away from my love towards him.    My dad is all of these things and more.  He is so unbelievably amazing and supportive - I'm so blessed to be his daughter.  Thinking of everything that I want to say on this special day in honor of my father, I couldn't help but revert back to this post about honoring my dad on his birthday this year.  It is heartfelt, compassionate, and it says it all!  But to sum it up, my dad is pretty much amazing.  And completely badass. :)  Yep, be jealous!   My journey through life so far has had its share of bumps in the road, don't we all know it! Haha.  But my dad has never given up on me - and he never will.  And last week was no different.  I vented about having a pretty rough day last week and posted the Instagram picture of Meredith Grey drowning (the title of that episode of Grey's Anatomy was called 'Drowning on Dry Land') - I shared that picture to Facebook, and this is what my dad had to say that day:    

  And now I will take this opportunity to repeat, MY DAD IS AMAZING!  Through thick and thin, good days and bad, the highs and lows - he supports every single one of us.  He's a family man and I am forever grateful for his support and encouragement.     Thank you, daddy!   I pray that all dads are honored and celebrated on this day, whether they are still with us today or have passed.  Take the time to show your dad (or father figure) that you love him and care about him. Don't take the moments you have or had for granted.  I know I don't!      

Happy Father's Day, dad. 

 

All gave some. Some gave {ALL}.

Today is Memorial Day.    A day to honor all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in ensuring our freedom.    Today, we honor those that have died in the line of duty to protect our nation from all enemies.   

  Today is not just a day to party and BBQ.  Today is not just the last day of a three-day weekend.   Today is a day that so many families: sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, friends, remember their loved ones who died serving this nation.    Instead of shopping for the Memorial Day sales or BBQ'ing by the pool, take a few moments out of whatever you're doing to pray for those that have paid the sacrifice and for their grieving families.   

  Do not let those fallen heroes down.  Don't take your freedom for granted, because they didn't.  Instead, honor them.  Life your life to its fullest, take those chances that scare you to death, and give thanks for every single soldier that has laid down his or her life to protect YOUR freedom, to protect YOUR dreams and goals.   

  Those fallen men and women sacrificed their lives so that we, yes YOU and ME, could be FREE! So, this Memorial Day, remember what the day is truly about.  Remember that in order for you to have the opportunity to be with friends and family today, many lives were lost.   

A Day {Off} ...

What a day it's been! I've been to/through these following cities TWICE: Weimar, Columbus, Brookshire, & Katy! And I've been through/to these once: Flatonia, Luling, Lockhart, Buda, and Austin! Of course Schulenburg was several times today.

Sheesh! That's a lot of driving! But it's been an amazing day! My dad and I surprised my mom for lunch in Katy, ate at Cheddar's, then headed back home. We picked up a check from the auction barn for some calves that were sold, and visited with my grandfather for a bit before heading home to my two amazing guys: Colten and Ace!

So, it's been a full day of love and laughter, and I'm ready for bed. More to come later!