There are times I wonder if my husband notices me at all. Like when I look for my flashlight and find it on a shelf too high for me to reach. Then there are times I’m amazed at how much he thinks about me.

Like yesterday.

It had been a perfect day. It started early and ended late, but everything on my to-do list was done.

Dinner was over. The house was clean. My husband was clearing dishes from the table and the last load of clothes was in the dryer. I slipped away to the bathroom and started running water in the tub. I’d been dreaming of this moment since putting away the vacuum.

At about 9 o’clock, I slid into the tub; closed my eyes and let the water take away the events of the day. When I opened them, a freshly folded towel (still warm) lay next to me. The rest were on the counter. I could hear the dishwasher running. What made this so romantic was now I had no reason to leave the tub.

No steak and lobster dinner could have made me happier than I felt at that moment. It’s seldom the billboard statements or grandiose gestures that fill our hearts.

It’s the love people bring to ordinary days that make us feel so special.

When my granddaughter was five (and I called her Oreo because it made her think I’d forgotten her name), she used the DVD’s scene selection to go straight to the parts of “Sleeping Beauty” she liked best. Prick finger. Fall asleep. Wake to a kiss. Have a party. Those were the parts of the movie Oreo watched. Over and over. To the exclusion of every other scene and everything else around her.

Now she’s grossed out when she sees anyone kiss. Period. The end. Yet when her mother brings Oreo a cupcake home from work or lets her read for “10 more minutes”, she beams from ear to ear and whispers “I love you” in a voice reserved only for Mom.

When I was in high school, my mom left giant paper valentines she made from butcher paper for my brothers and me on the kitchen table before she left for work.  Mine read, “Good luck on your geometry test” and had a chocolate bar taped to it.

Love is everywhere this month, but Valentine’s Day is just one day. There are opportunities to show and notice love every day of the year.

What means just as much to you as a card or box of candy? What thoughtful gestures make you feel loved? Please share them in the comments section. We could use some inspiration.

 

And if you don’t think of housework as romantic, maybe you missed what Mr. Clean did to the Super Bowl,