Frugal Romance

The Principal and I recently celebrated our 4th Anniversary - wow - what a whirlwind 4 years it has been. When we married I was a full-time working Mom preparing my 3 year old to start school the following year. Thank goodness God is so gentle and has such a wonderful sense of humor and timing for, if not for those things we certainly would not be where we are today - it is as always by His Grace Alone that we are who we are and doing what we are doing. I am now a full-time homeschooling Mom learning to care for family and home in ways I had no knowledge of a few short years ago - Thank You Abba Father !!!

In light of the changes that we have made in our day to day circumstances, many other changes have followed both out of need and desire. One of the things that I try to do as much as I possibly can is continue to "earn" an income at home by being a good steward of the provision with which we are blessed. There are so many ways that I have learned to make money go further (future post perhaps?) and some of them I wouldn't change now even if there was an endless supply of money. The Principal earns a good living and I feel it is my responsibility to put the deserved value on his hard work by not spending it carelessly....SO....with that in mind I approached our anniversary with the best of intentions and rather than focus on what could I buy him I focused on what could Igive him. Take these ideas and use them as you wish - it is my prayer that they inspire you to romantic genius!!This year I found myself thinking back to so many moments of our trip to Jamaica where we were married barefoot on the beach and so decided to go with the "Jamaica" theme for showing my sweetheart how much he means to me on this anniversary. The Principal wakes the roosters in the morning so I knew he would be up before me - after he was sleeping sweetly the night before I snuck into our bathroom where I had all the "props" stashed and set the scene for the morning. I gathered together a thank you card that had a wedding picture on the beach, a conch shell with a great story (for another time), a bathing suit wrap and hat I wore, sand and shells from the beach where we were married and our wedding rings. I set it all up in our bathroom by draping the wrap over the counter top and making a display of sorts - this was what he would be greeted with at he started the day - it was a huge hit by the way - he loved it and it set the tone for a wonderful day of romance. We made arrangements for Wonder Boy for the day and after getting him situated, we hit the road to do what we love and do best....letterbox and adventure!! We drove to a town a few hours away where there were several letterboxes that we had not yet found and enjoyed the day hiking and exploring - it was a crisp sunny day and we we had the best time. We decided to fore go the pricey restaurant meal instead deciding on a wonderful gourmet pizza at home while we relaxed by the fire. I made the best pizza I have ever made with authentic Italian type dough purchased from the deli counter at Whole Foods Market, topped with prosciutto and fresh basil and thinly sliced Roma tomatoes - it was divine - and only a fraction of what a dinner out would have cost! After dinner we exchanged small gifts and just hung out and talked in the comfort of our living room, in our comfy clothes without interruption from wait staff or child - it was heavenly.

This is the card I made for The Principal (I now make all the cards I give to both The Principal and Wonder Boy because well....they love them and I have issues with Hallmark (yet another post) and it's hard to find cards made by anyone else.

By the way - as an aside - Wonder Boy was so taken by all my plans he worked one up of his own - the morning of our anniversary he presented a gift to The Principal and I that he had put together himself. It was a beautifully wrapped ;-) journal with 2 pens - one red and one blue(so we could each have our own color to use) for us to write love notes to each other in, with a note from Wonder Boy written on the inside cover wishing us Happy Anniversary - how's that for homeschooling ? Not too mention precious!! Just to let you know - we keep it on the dresser in our closet and I usually read a note/leave a note when I am putting socks and t-shirts away.....it has turned out to be such a sweet sweet gift.

Let me share one last thing with you....the box. I bought this beautiful wooden box on sale at Hobby Lobby for 50% off several years ago now and filled it with 365 notes of love, thoughts, memories and thank yous to give The Principal for Christmas. I have since filled it for different occasions when it is empty - The Principal takes a note our randomly each morning before leaving for work and keeps it in his pocket to glance at throughout the day. I re-stocked the box for our anniversary - it had been sitting empty a while - I feel like a better wife when the box is filled ;-) I keep an excel file on my laptop and add things as they come to mind so that when the box needs filling I have something to print off, trim and fold. The Principal tells me this is easily one of the best gifts he has ever received. Different colored paper makes me happy......

I hope a peek into our romance will give you some inspiration to look outside the "norm" and return to the joy of gift giving with creativity inspired by love - really and truly you will save some money, but more importantly you will be beautifully packaging up the real gift that we all want .....love.....I don't think it gets any more priceless than that !

Learning as I go,

Leisha