My loves

We express a whole lot of love around this house. There are constant "I love yous" thrown around at random intervals throughout the day. There are spontaneous hugs and kisses and a whole lot of cuddles.

But we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day as a family. We do Valentine's at school and have some candy that is heart shaped, but the boys don't get presents or a special card. Don't get me wrong...they are the loves of my life! After looking at social media and feeling like a pretty terrible mother for not doing something hugely special and spectacular, I decided that they boys would be okay. But, I did want to get down to the root of why I never thought to shower them with special things on that particular day. The boys have special parties at school and treats with friends and I LOVE they do that! But why wasn't I making a big deal about it at home?

I realized that day has always been set aside for John and me. Not that we need "A" day....no couple in love needs just ONE day to celebrate it. I just like to go on dates and do special things with my husband. February 14th just gives me a great excuse to make sure a date is on our calendar.

We always give each other the gift of time for Valentine's Day. There have been Valentine's Days where I had roses delivered to work or a new yoga mat (hit it out of the ballpark on that one babe!) show up, but mostly we make sure to give each other time. It doesn't even mean we have to 'go out'. Some Valentine's we have an 'in house' date night. That has been some of my favorite evenings with John. No babysitter, kids in bed, favorite tapas, wine and just us being able to finally talk.

We shower each other with the thing that is most precious...most rare at this point in our life. Uninterrupted, quality time together. Which I realized...is my LOVE LANGUAGE! That's why it is so important to me.

And possibly why I don't make a huge deal about it with the boys. They get almost all of my non-work hours. I try to shower them each and every night with quality time as a family. We say NO to lots of things so we can be together as a family. If I leave the family during the week, it's for pretty important people and I rarely leave twice in one week.

This year one of John's favorite musicians, Sam Bush, was playing at City Winery in Nashville. It was a last minute (in my book) decision. Our favorite sitter could stay with the boys and we found a hotel that hadn't jacked up their prices too bad for the Valentine's Day weekend. So we hopped in the car and set out for our 26 hour date.

I admit, I have never even heard of Sam Bush before this trip. I was blown away by his performance. He was great! But I also love (good) live music. And the venue didn't hurt. City Winery has to be one of the coolest places to see a performer. So cool in fact, we are trying to go back in May to see Shawn Colvin.

But you know what I loved most....spending 26 uninterrupted hours with the love of my life. Happy Valentine's Day my love. I appreciate that you treat every day like it's Valentine's.