My Crafty Love Languages

Last night... I got crafty. I got onto pin*terest, looked at a couple of crafts i actually thought would improve my life while sticking to my budget price of $5. So I looked through them and i found two things that I REALLY liked, and i DID them! this is very odd for me, usually i see something and ask someone else to do them for me. My sister-in-law came with as i got supplies and helped me make these two thing. Before i can tell and show pictures of what crafts i did, there is a story and a reason behind them (because otherwise i would be a NORMAL person who just DOES things for no reason!)

Way long ago when Kel and I were not even dating (3 days before we started "dating") we had a very deep and intense conversation. We both agreed that since we have been in HORRIBLE relationships and treated incorrectly by other people we were done playing the dating game. We both were looking for an old fashioned "courtship" where the time you spend together is used to determine if you will be headed down the isle. this is very old fashioned thinking, but neither of us was up for the emotional journey that negative relationships bring. So we decided to start dating, and if at any point in time one of us thinks (even a little bit) that we couldn't make this work FOREVER no hard feeling. Kel had one stipulation before we started dating after we both realized we were in the same place: that i read a book for him. He had read this book in the past and it completely changed his outlook on Love, so he wanted me to read it. It's called "the 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman.


So i started reading this book and like Kel my ideas and outlook about Love COMPLETELY changed. The premise of this book is that each person expressed and receives love in their own language. There are five languages total, physical touch, acts of kindness, quality time, words of affirmation and gifts. Everyone also has a "love tank" that needs filled by others (or their significant other). The only way to properly fill it is with THEIR love language. This books goes through each language how to speak and how to receive each language.

Well Kel was very obvious with what his language was: physical touch. If he needs a love tank boost, a hug will do the trick. i however am a very tricky one. My love language changes with my moods and takes a fair amount of effort to keep up, however Kel and I developed a system. Every week we had date night where we would go out and do something the guarantee that the "quality time" language was met. These dates nights were my favorite. Also Kel and i would write down little notes for each other a lot to give each other "words of affirmation." this way we always had physical signs of our love. This meant no matter what we spent time every day and week showing and telling our love for each other.

Since we got married A LOT has happened for us and date nights were no longer happening. We are on a tighter budget than ever with Baby Cecelia coming and our schedules don't allow us to be guaranteed one day a week off work. We also got so busy our "love tanks" were pushed to the side. This meant we did have a lot more fights (all about stupid things like whether or not we should rinse our dishes before putting them in the dishwasher) and we just weren't where we thought we should be.

So i did something about it. My first craft was a frame. I took a very simple (and CHEAP) frame and put stickers on it saying "i love you because..." then i got a dry erase marker, put a picture of us in it, and wrote reason why i love Kel on the glass. It's simple and he woke up this morning looking at all the reason i love him. Now when we most need it we have a way to fill each others love tanks.

The second craft i did was 3 date night jars. I decorated them (myself!) and then put Popsicle sticks with date ideas. each jar has a price range. We are to make time for 1 date a week and budget in $25 for each date (so about $100 a month). the first week we draw from the $0-$25 jar. We do what is on the stick and that's date night. Any money left over rolls into the next week's date night amount. So if we do a free activity the first week we get to draw from the $25-$50 amount jar the second week, etc, etc! The third jar is $50-$75. The date ideas are all creative and thought up by us, and there are more than 52, we when we do a date we take it out of the jar. we have dates set up for a whole year. Some dates even include a "kindness night" where we do a random act of kindness for someone we've never met instead of treating ourselves. For example on is in the $25-$50 range where we go to a restaurant and order ONLY an appetizer and waters. We have our date and spend time together, then we leave the rest of the money we have as a tip with a card saying "we have selected to do a random act of kindness for you. Please keep the change. Thanks for all your hard work." Or instead of taking a date we stay home but we buy someone random a tank of gas the next day.

So there is the story of how Kel and I learned to love, let ourselves go, and learned new tools to keep our love going strong every day!