Every Day Should be Valentine's Day: 50 Inspiring Ideas and Heartwarming Stories to Make Your Love Feel Special All the Time
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About this ebook
Rest assured this is not a book about how to buy your way to a more romantic life. Money stress is anti-romance. Instead, we are here to help you create a more romantic life and make the most of what you already have.
The ideas and suggestions collected here are not always about dewy-eyed romance, but also about compromise, and having positive experiences that bond you as a couple. A few examples include:
- Your Turn to Choose—do something your partner loves, even if you aren’t as enthusiastic about it. Maybe you can attend a musical one night, and visit a brewery the next. Mix it up!
- Pick-a-Date—using small scraps of paper, each of you should write out twenty ideas on how to spend a day, an evening, or even an hour. Ideas could include “pack a picnic and go to the park,” or “go to that restaurant we’ve been wanting to try,” or even “have a movie marathon at home.” Fill a jar with the pieces of paper, shake it up, and pull out an idea when it’s time for a date!
- Get a Smaller Bed—lounging on a huge, king-size bed might seem like an ultimate couples’ goal, but in any kind of small space you need to work things out and come to an agreement faster than if there was room to spread out and get away from each other.
Jennifer Basye Sander
Jennifer Basye Sander is the author and co-author of over 50 titles, including the New York Times bestseller Christmas Miracles (1997). Sander and her books have been featured on CNBC, CNNfn, The View with Barbara Walters, C-Span’s Book TV, and Fox News, among others. Articles about Sander have appeared in People, USA TODAY, the New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, Cosmopolitan, the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times, among others. Visit her at WriteByTheLake.com.
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Every Day Should be Valentine's Day - Jennifer Basye Sander
Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Basye Sander
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.
Skyhorse® and Skyhorse Publishing® are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.
Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover image by gettyimages
Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-5231-3
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-5232-0
Printed in China
Contents
Introduction
Save the Planet Together
Travel in Your Mind
Foot Massage Time
A Day of One’s Own
Mix it Up
Tub Time
Wild Romance
Creative Cards
Get Lost
Take a Local Tour
Experiment Together
Roses Are Forever
True Mastery
Devices Be Gone!
Keep Bubbly at the Ready
Champagne Is for the Ladies
Manners Matter
Back to School
Romance Yourself First
Keep Talking
Your Turn to Choose
Sleep Station
Jammie Time
The Look of Love
Water World
Get a Smaller Bed
Practice Wabi-Sabi and Kintsugi
Be Brave and Write a Poem
MY LOVE
Money Matters
Beauty Squared
Move Outdoors
Create a Very Small Book Club
Very Vintage
Time Out
Story Time
Couch Surfing
Enshrined in History
Clean the Garage (Again?!)
Step One …
Get Real
Fund Together, Right Now …
Be Fresh
Be Entertaining
Antiestablishment
Be a Maker
Practice Your Moods
In Chambers
The Doctor Will See You (Both) Now
Healthy Together
Get a Clue
Side by Side
Simply Delicious
Literary Adventurers
Game Night
Romantic Splurges
Contributors
Introduction
Welcome to the Every Day Is Special series! We’re so glad you are here and ready to amp up the love, romance, and beauty in your life!
Valentine’s Day has literally been around for centuries, ever since (as the legend goes) a monk named Valentine helped sweethearts send clandestine messages to each other. And then, as so often happens with a good idea, the business world got hold of it and boom—love and romance once a year becomes commercialized. From advertisements for jewelry to restaurant promotions promising an evening to remember, it can be easy to feel wiped out after the Valentine’s Day commercial onslaught. Leaves a bit of a bad taste in the aftermath, doesn’t it? So hey, take back your power! Celebrate every day instead!
Rest assured this is not a book about how to buy your way to a more romantic life. In compiling and collecting and creating these various ideas and suggestions, I have taken great care to consider any costs involved. What good is a book that suggests that you fly first class, enjoy fancy meals, and give diamonds as gifts? If you can afford any of these things, congratulations! However, if you are like most of us, those things would be a rare occurrence. Money stress is antiromance. Instead, we are here to help you create a more romantic life, and that requires creativity.
Where do fresh ideas for romance come from? From everything around you. Look at magazine pictures, or yes, Pinterest and Instagram. Don’t look at these carefully staged images and think to yourself, My life doesn’t look like this and probably never will … I can’t afford this, I can’t go to that place, I can’t visit that restaurant … Instead, look creatively at what appeals to you and think to yourself, How can I make my life look like this with what I already have?
You and your partner will have different ideas about what is romantic, and that is okay. So much about being in a long-term relationship is about compromise, isn’t it? And so we hope that both you and your partner get to indulge in the experiences and the moments that you each find romantic. Because if it always goes the way one of you wants it to, resentment might well bubble up.
The ideas and suggestions that we’ve collected here are not always about dewy-eyed romance, but often about having parallel experiences that bond you as a couple. Sprinkled throughout are also a handful of stories from people just like you about how even the most ordinary things can be viewed through a romantic lens. We’ve also included a handful of Romantic Splurges for those times when you have the cash on hand to do something wild. So read on, and see what new ideas appeal to you …
We’ve got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.
—John Lennon
Save the Planet Together
Love and commitment require planning ahead, and what more romantic way to plan ahead than to do something for the benefit of future