Today’s edition of “Works For Me Wednesday,” hostessed by Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer, is a themed one on the subject of love in honor of Valentine’s Day. We’re asked to contribute relationship advice, romantic tips, Valentine’s ideas, etc. So I present you with various odds and ends. 🙂

♥ One piece of advice: I mentioned this several days ago, but something Elisabeth Elliot wrote spoke to me:

Many women have told me that my husband’s advice, which I once quoted in a book, has been an eye-opener to them. He said that a wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to perhaps eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it by very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy.

So often we can get hung up on the few little things that bother us rather than putting it into perspective.

♥ Traditions: The only thing I do every Valentine’s Day is make heart-shaped cupcakes using some heart-shaped muffins pans. One year I made a big Valentine sign for the family using candy bars for various words. I forget where I had first seen the idea. I went to the store to get candy bars first, so I could see what was available and make up sentences using those words, then made up the sign writing out my “greeting” and replacing the key words with candy bars. Another year I made a little clue-finding expedition, cutting out a heart and putting a series of clues on the two halves which led to some prize, I forget what now. The kids really loved that and asked for it for the next couple of years, but I had exhausted my clue-making abailities. That was harder than I thought! I try to make a nice dinner that night — not all-out like Thanksgiving, but not hot dogs or fish sticks, either. I also usually buy or make cards for everyone. When the kids were little we made cards with them for each other, and I loved that — those are some of my treasures.

♥ Resource: Family Fun magazine and its web site are wonderful resources for neat, fun, and simple holidays ideas (crafts, foods, ways to celebrate). It’s Disney-owned, so there are a lot of ads for Disney stuff, and I wouldn’t agree with every philosophy or product they recommend, but the holiday and party ideas are great.

♥ Book: There are many great books on marriage, but I think my all-time favorite is The Ministry of Marriage by Jim Binney. It reall emphasizes that aspect, that marriage is a minstry to the other person.

♥ Funnies: This is something from my files I thought you might enjoy. I received it in an e-mail years ago, author unknown:

Pearls of wisdom from Grandpa on having a long, happy marriage…

Whether a man winds up with the nest egg or a goose egg depends a lot on the kind of chick he marries.

Many girls like to marry a military man – he can cook, sew, make beds and is in good health, and most importantly he’s already used to taking orders.

Too many couples marry for better or for worse, but not for good.

When a man marries a woman, they become one. The trouble starts when they try to decide which one.

Trouble in marriage also often starts when a man gets so busy earning his salt that he forgets his sugar.

If a man has enough “horse sense” to treat his wife like a thoroughbred, she will never be an old nag.

On anniversaries a wise husband always forgets the past, but never the present.

As I did for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, over the next few days I want to post some quotes, jokes, and such for Valentines’s Day.

In related news, as most probably already know, Shalee is sponsoring a “50 Cheap Dates” event where folks can link to their ideas for fun and inexpensive things to do for two. 🙂 I don’t have anything to share for that one, at least not that I can think of yet. I tend to be a homebody, and most things that we do involve the whole family. But we probably should do some of that kind of thing — I’ll be looking forward to gleaning some ideas from there and from this week’s Works-For-Me Wednesday. 🙂

(Photo courtesy of the stock.xchng)