“Today is Valentine’s Day. Or, as men like to call it, Extortion day.“ ~Jay Leno

You can’t really call it extortion when we women are just as willing to accept things that don’t cost you money as our Valentines gift. Every girl loves a homemade card or home-cooked dinner from her sweetheart because it says he cared enough to take the time to make it, even though he hates doing stuff like that. But if you men don’t want to go through the trouble of making us something by hand, then of course you should feel free to go buy us something that has diamonds if that’s gonna be more convenient for you.  The choice is yours – either give us your time or give us your money :). We women are flexible like that :)!    tee hee

With Valentine’s tomorrow it’s the perfect time to start making time for more romance in your marriage. Now men, this takes more than just avoiding eye contact with your wife all day as to avoid getting in any trouble with her, thus risking any romance that night.  This takes doing plenty of small things all day long to let her know that you love her – like those sweet little text messages you USED to send her when you dated, or those little post-it notes on the mirror saying how beautiful she is, or doing the dishes and cleaning up for her – those little things will get you a lot more romance from your wife.

And women, we need to do our part here too – show up, turn off the television (or at least pause it), put your phone down, watch a football game with him, act interested when he’s telling you how he rewired a light switch, consider wearing something a little fancier to bed then flannel pajamas or your jumpin jammerz zipper blanket with the feet built into them – I understand it can feel unfair that we ladies are having to make such huge sacrifices comparatively, but we do it because we love them 😉

Take time over this Valentine / Presidents weekend to show your partner how much they matter to you by making time for romance. Not just with flowers and chocolate covered strawberries (not the implication that there will, in fact, be flowers and chocolate strawberries provided…hint, hint…) but also spending quality time playing together, laughing with each other, and flirting with one another.  It so much easier to forgive, see the good, and love each other when romance is alive and well in your marriage.

Have a fabulous long holiday weekend everyone!

~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )