Happy Valentine Day!

 

The two of us after 39 years of Valentine Days together!

I looked for some words of wisdom on love and found the following paragraphs.

Relationship Expert – Stephanie Coontz

Be truly interested in your partner’s ideas and activities; take pride in their achievements; use endearments or offer tactile affection without being asked; have a sense of humor about differences; and never let irritation or anger slide into contempt.

Psychologist - John Gottmans, PhD

People need about five positive interactions for every negative one in an intimate relationship.  It’s less the occasional over-the-top gesture and more the regular, small deposits that count—a few words of appreciation, a loving touch, an expression of sexual attraction.  If we have trouble remembering to regularly express appreciation, we may do better by asking, “What would have been harder about this day if my partner wasn’t in my life?”

Alison Chabonals

While marriage as an institution is less powerful than it used to be, people have higher expectations of marriage as a relationship.  Precisely because most Americans no longer feel they have to marry, they are more specific about what they want from it.  When a marital relationship works today, it is fairer, more intimate, more mutually beneficial and less prone to violence than ever before.  Yet, individuals are less willing to stay in a relationship that doesn’t confer these benefits.

Successful marriages used to depend upon specialization.  Men and women couldn’t substitute for one another in accomplishing tasks.  A typical woman couldn’t support herself financially; a typical man didn’t know how to feed himself, do laundry or manage child-rearing.  Even if couples didn’t share many mutual interests, the partners often took pleasure in being indispensable.

Now women can support themselves and men cook and clean. Thus, shared interest and leisure activities, rather than specialized work roles, increasingly serve as the glue of marriage.  Play takes people off the work-centric treadmill and introduces novelty into the relationship.

Spending leisure time with others also produces higher levels of happiness than cocooning, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.


I started my day getting an adjustment for my pinched nerve issue.

Then on to work to some goodies from the bosses...

And a great gift my grandson painted me arrived in the mail.

Then dinner of course...

The mechanic fried me some quail...

Fried quail with potatoes and a salad with beets.

And desert...

 And if you are wondering if the twin is enjoying himself, this is the picture I received at 3:45 today while I was hard at Work.

 I am so jealous!