Valentine’s Day activities

Well-being starts with some ‘we’ time.

It’s mid-February, the festive season has long since passed… I thought this year would be different – that I would control my diary – but as it happens I find myself as busy as ever. The thing is, I guess it will always be like this. I’m not one to sit on my hands or contemplate possibility. I’m an action sort of a girl.

The downside to this is that I can be racing from one thing to the next, finally, make it to the weekend, and collapse in a heap not wanting to leave the house. My new husband (of nine weeks) is busy doing his thing too. And if we are not careful we could become ships in the night…

I remind myself regularly how fortunate I am to love, and to be loved. To have someone to share adventures with, and is there for me through ‘thick and thin’; I don’t ever want to take this for granted.

One needs to start a relationship as you intend to continue. We need ‘we’ time. We have four children, several businesses, family, community and all sorts of responsibilities, all of which we love doing – but we must make time for ourselves.

Here are five things that we are doing to make sure that our busyness of business does not get in the way of what is the most important – my new husband.

1. We walk together every morning (making sure that we catch up on the day, create the day and get our 10,000 steps per day up).
2. No iPhones, tablets etc. anywhere near meal times – we do make time to sit for meals avoiding eating on the run.
3. Block out time just for us – we used to call it POF (Pants off Friday) but even the thought of that grossed our kids out so much we kind of keep the name to ourselves. POF means ‘we’ time – which might mean a massage, reading together, a lunch, or doing one of our hobbies; we shoot for at least one a month.
4. Date night/day… we choose a new place or adventure – something that we have never done before. Stand-up comedy is often on this list. Having a great laugh together is great ‘we’ time.
5. Celebrate everything! Yes, it was our nine week anniversary on Sunday so we celebrated; and with Valentine’s Day fast approaching it is a great reminder to do something special!

Each year since we have known each other, I create our ‘we’ time album (a gorgeous hardback printed book), and these are my most precious possessions. As we flip from page to page it is the ‘special’ moments that we created that we remember and laugh about the most.

So, when you look back on 2017 it is not a blur, but there are highlighted moments that are amazing.

This year we did our Valentine’s Day activities a bit early, I took some of my own advice and chose a RedBalloon experience to surprise Stuart with. From Essendon Airport, Guy, our pilot, took us for a spin around the Melbourne skyline before heading to the Yarra Valley. Arriving by helicopter to an incredible eight-course degustation lunch, in the most beautiful of settings; the Levantine Hill Estate vineyards and sculpture garden surrounded us… it was simply divine. Now I am no food blogger – but I tell you this could turn me into one… the pictures will save me a thousand words.

What an incredible ‘we’ time… Thank you to all for making our first Valentine’s Day so very special.