THE POWER OF LITTLE HEART NOTES

This post is more of a personal one in relation to my marriage and husband which I don’t think I have written about much.  Truth, he doesn’t want his photo on my blog and I respect that.  I have struggled with how to depict my family which most definitely includes him and not share too much information.  For those of you who have followed me for the last two years you know that I have taking part inThe Abundant Mama Project and most of my focus has been on me and the kids but living more abundantly includes my husband as well.

My husband and I got married 10 years ago this summer after we had been dating for about a year and half.   That day was just as I had always envisioned as a girl.  Family, friends and the man of my dreams.  I was so lucky.  I remember in the first year of marriage though all the adjustments that we had to make to transfer each of our separate lives into a combined one.  I do things the way I do them and he does things the way he does them.  We had to learn how to do things the way we would do them.  It takes a lot of give and take.  Everyone had given us the usual advice – don’t go to bed angry, make sure to communicate about everything (what he can’t read my mind?), keep the romance alive.

little heart notesWe added 3 children to our lives fairly fast.  Not long after our 1st anniversary our first son arrived (Mr. Black Licorice on my blog), 21 months later our 2nd son (Mr. Yoda) and 26 months after him our daughter (Miss Ballerina) arrived.  These pass 10 years have been dominated by the growth and nurturing of our family.  Not always the growth and nurturing of our own relationship although after 10 years we have both grown in loving the familiarity that comes from knowing someone for a long time.  I like to create poems or pieces of art for him at our anniversary time.  However, time and creativity are not always on my side.

I do a lot of journaling and so I began going back over the last 10 years to reflect on our marriage.  The good and the not so good.  I know my husband likes little reminders of our love or notes of encouragement from me.  Men are human and despite his very logical mind he is a romantic at heart. So this year I decided to create 10 little heart notes that I would write a special message on as a reflection of each year of our marriage.  I will then hide 1 a day for him in a special place only he would find them.

Here is how I made mine:

I sat down one day trying to create some ideas in my scrapbook.

art journal

I started with just playing with watercolours to create a background in my scrapbook.

little heart notes

Then I played with my stamps, oil pastels, soft pencil crayons, and glitter pens and ended up with this.  Then I cut up the page into 10 hearts to create little notes for my husband.

adalinc to life
Then I wrote little messages on them.  And on the back I wrote a reflection for each year we have been married.
adalinc to life
Thoughtful is our family word of the year and these little cards fit with our word nicely.
I know I’m guilty of it but I work so hard at my relationship with my kids promoting kindness and my husband often gets missed.  This is something simple that adds to the kindness and thoughtfulness of our relationship with my husband.
adalinc to life
This became an activity my kids can do as well for each other.  Here are the little heart notes my daughter made.  I helped her write messages on the back for her brothers, papa, aunts, uncles and for me as well.  She can give them out when she wants and I will encourage she shares them when her and her brothers are having a conflict.
adalinc to life

 

How do you promote thoughtfulness and kindness with your husband?  Within your family?  I’m always open for new ideas.
If you would like to send a special someone a special note I have included a downloadable file to print out at home and then add your own special message too.  If you would like more of my printables sign up for my monthly newsletter and gain access to my Printables Library for my members.  Sign up is at the bottom of the post. In the library I have printable stickers, goal sheets, and other goodies.  I try to add 1 new printable a month depending on how busy life is at that moment.  I just love the combination of navy, pinks and yellow together, don’t you?
*For Personal Use Only*
Or I also have this notecard
Cheers,
Bonnie Dani
Educator, Writer, Blogger, Mom
Contact Me: [email protected]
This post has been linked up here:
The SHINE Blog Hop
The Jenny Evolution