Committed: The Ties that Bond
with Angella Dykstra
I'm a mom of three, a professional accountant, and an amateur photographer and writer. I am not a marriage expert. But my husband and I take "Til death do us part" seriously, and here I'll be sharing how we keep our marriage strong while we both do that insane work-life juggle.
Check out my Work It, Mom! profile and my blog, Dutch Blitz.
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Unless you grew up in the wilderness or possibly just arrived here from outer space, you may have heard of a certain holiday that happens next week called, “Valentine’s Day”. I know that I, personally, have heard about it everywhere. T.V. commercials, fliers, blog posts, my kids’ school.
As a single girl in my twenties I shunned Valentine’s Day. It was a “Hallmark holiday” created for companies to have something to capitalize on in order to up their sales between Christmas and Easter. I was having no part of it.
When I met my husband, I soon found out that he felt the same way. Who needs a day to celebrate love when we were immersed in romance all day long. Ha. Ha! HAAAAAAA.
Nearly ten years of marriage and three children later we realize we may have been a little (or a lot) smug. While we try to make Date Night a bi-weekly commitment there have been times where our schedule is so full or there is nary a babysitter to be found and we soon find that a month (or more) has gone by since we had some time alone. We’ve decided to remedy this on a grander scale that the usual Costco trip/dinner out.
A brand new (Fancy!) resort has been built on the lake my hometown sits on. As part of the slow winter season and their desire to drum up some sales, they are holding a crazy deal for the next two months. For $130 we get a HUGE room with one of those big jacuzzi tubs and a view overlooking the lake. Included in the price is a $50 gift card for one of four nice restaurants nearby and $20 off at their spa. As I mentioned last week, my brother (who lives with us) is willing to watch our kids overnight so that we can have a mini-getaway. Twenty-four hours alone is a treat, indeed.
We’re not going on the Valentine’s Day weekend, but we’re calling it our Valentine’s gift to each other…and we’re OK with that. We’re not giving each other cheesy cards though. Or maybe we are? Shoot. This is all new to me.
How about you? Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?
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We’ve been dating for over 5 years now and we haven’t ever really celebrated Valentine’s day. We usually cook dinner together but that’s not unlike a lot of other nights. We don’t have anything planned as of yet and it is doubtful we will do anything more than our regular dinner in.
K | February 2nd, 2010 at 1:33 pm
When my now husband and I first started dating he got me a very beautiful (diamond!) necklace for Valentine’s day. I am entirely anti-Valentine’s (for the very reasons you write of) and didn’t even have a card for him. It was horrible.
So from then on we exchange anti-Valentine’s day cards (that are usually just really funny) and a few times in the past we’ve had a group of our single friends over for a big meal. They are the ones that get the brunt of the V-day damage.
Tia | February 2nd, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Your plans sound wonderful!
We usually celebrate Valentine’s Day in some way, but don’t go too crazy. Maybe a romantic dinner at home, or a picnic at the beach. We don’t usually go out to restaurants as they are so busy. I also don’t let Rob buy me flowers as they are 10 times more expensive on Feb 14th. We exchange cards, but not presents.
Hannah | February 2nd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
nope - can’t be arsed!
hillary | February 2nd, 2010 at 3:21 pm
I hate Valentine’s Day.
Mrs. Wilson | February 2nd, 2010 at 7:39 pm
I’m not a big fan. We always approached it in a low-key way and now with two kids we make the day special for them more than ourselves - I make milk pink with food coloring, we give them chocolate hearts and little teddy bears, etc. We might exchange a token gift (I will never say no to chocolate and am just as happy if it’s a chocolate bar really).
However, we don’t put a lot of energy into the day because our anniversary is the 22nd so we always saved the schmoopiness for that day instead.
Sherry | February 2nd, 2010 at 9:50 pm
This is the first year we are coming close to celebrating Valentine’s day (usually it is Taco Bell and a bottle of wine) - however one of our friends has made arrangements for a sitter for all of our kids and we are going out to dinner. Now it is actually four couples and we opted out of going V weekend - too many amateurs out that night however we are all looking forward to it. Otherwise - we give cards to each other and small stuff to the punkin head - definitely not flowers at that time.
Heather | February 3rd, 2010 at 4:52 pm
That sounds awesome, have fun!!!!
Jennifer | February 6th, 2010 at 4:55 pm