Happy Valentine’s Day 2016!

Last night Henry and I had a great conversation about what we wanted to do for Valentine’s Day.  We don’t like the hype of this “holiday” so we spent some important time thinking about what we could do to make it special for us.

After a particularly tense session a week ago, our coach Judy suggested we read the Love Language book to get super connected on how to show our love to each other.  The book is called The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary D. Chapman.  Why buy your special person flowers when she/he’d be happier if you emptied the dishwasher?  This book helps people really know what’s special to themselves which  then is shared so others can know how to show love that will be truly appreciated.

Miracle stuff.

We didn’t read it yet.  But we have ordered it and will start reading it this week.

We DID however do some deep work that led us to each know that we’re blessed with a special life filled with so many amazing adventures and friends.  So instead of fancy chocolates, dinner, and unnecessary gifts, we had a caring conversation and thought through what would be a special way to celebrate our love.

During our conversation, I shared some painful thoughts and  memories with Henry about getting gifts and how I was really conflicted about wanting gifts but in the end not really being able to receive them.  (It’s good that we’re going to read the book.)  He was so awesome and listened so carefully to understand me and make me feel loved and understood.

We also spent a few hours talking about how we could reorganize our apartment and simplify.  It’s important to insert here, that a conversation like this or the one about my painful memories would have led to huge fights and power struggles just 2 weeks ago, but we were incredibly respectful and caring with each other and we felt some deep love for each other that we really haven’t felt in a long time.

On to Valentine’s Day!  We woke up to snow which made the day super special! So instead of any sort of fancy dinner, our choice was breakfast at 2Schae Cafe, a place that’s owned by my ex-husband’s first wife Lisa and her husband Don.  We LOVE her and her husband and they LOVE us.  Our time there was as scrumptious as it was filled with love.  A perfect way to start our day!

We followed with a drive through the park and snapped a bunch of great shots in the snow.  This one is in front of one of the French kings that our city is named after!

And then went to IKEA!!  This was all part of the plan that we came up with last night. We decided to get rid of some bulky furniture (and I volunteered to get rid of something that I really loved, but I knew it was just too big for our space – see pic of fireplace here) and go for a much more minimal look in our apartment.

So we put some of our old stuff on a neighborhood Craigslist sort of thing and went looking for new stuff.  Once again, no fights.  Just awesome collaboration.  And in the end, we got a few, inexpensive and yet perfect pieces for our place that will really transform it.  Love IKEA!

We’ve already moved a bunch of things around and it’s feeling amazing in here.  And still not one fight.  This is pretty crazy!  As I’m writing Henry is putting together his new chair.       

We’re going for less clutter.  Less clutter in our heads, less clutter of “stuff” and less clutter in our lives.  It seems to be working!

Take a look – from the crazy clutter of getting organized, to the pic below when we finished part of the project!

Happy Valentine’s Day around the world!  Kasey

Henry here – Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!  Kasey and I had a really great day together. Our plans kind of shifted due to weather, but we still had a blast. The whole day felt really connecting whether we were at IKEA, having breakfast together, or enjoying the snow in an empty park. Probably the thing from IKEA I was most excited about was the new chair that we got.

All in all though, our teamwork was really great and we accomplished some great things together; it was a very connecting day for the two of us. I love her so much and it was an amazing first Valentine’s as a married couple.