“God gave you the gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say “thank you”? – William A. Ward

I said “thank you” to the barista girl who handed me my Mocha Latte through the drive-thru window.  I said “thank you” to the friend who stopped me at church to compliment my new ‘do.  I said “thank you” to the young man at the checkout who told me to “have a nice day”.  I said “thank you” to the stranger who held the door.

Maybe you do use a good number of those 86,400 seconds each day to say “thank you”.

But, when is that last time you said it to your spouse?

When is the last time I did? {Pause for a quick text…..}

I am constantly reminding my boys to say “please” and “thank you”, but I find I so often forget to use those same words each day with my husband.  “Hottie, can you get a gallon of milk out of the fridge in the garage?”  (Yes, we call each other ‘Hottie’.  It is our own ‘honey’, started in our dating years).  “Can you set the table…grab that baby…let the dogs out…feed the cat…change over the laundry…take out the garbage…call your mother to let her know about the birthday party…fix that towel hanger in the bathroom again…discipline that child…rub this knot out of my shoulder…critique this blog post………………………….”

We share a life.  We share a home.  We share four boys.  We share two dogs.  We share a cat.  We share a lot of responsibilities.

And in the dailiness of all of that, I often forget to let my man know how much I appreciate the things he does.  Not just “thank you” for the extraordinary things he does, but the “thank you” for the ordinary.

Most often, I am grateful.  I feel the ‘thank you’, but forget to say the ‘thank you’.

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William A. Ward

Thanks to Pinterest (don’t even get me started!!!), I was inspired to do this little DIY project to encourage me to remember to share the gift of gratitude.  Even if you aren’t crafty, use this as your own inspiration to create a place or think of a way, that you say “thank you” to your spouse everyday (i.e. a text at lunch time, a note in their pocket).  If you do this everyday from now until Valentine’s Day, you will have a new marriage.  Don’t believe me?  Consider it an experiment and write me the things you see happen in your relationship (danielle@fancylittlethings.com).

“THANK YOU” BOARD

Supplies

  • Frame with Glass
  • Scrapbook Paper (or whatever you’ve got…photo, wallpaper, wrapping paper…)
  • Embellishments (optional)
  • Letter Stickers (or you can use your printer or a marker)
  • Dry Erase Marker

1. Take the back of frame off.  Lay it on your paper and trace.  Cut paper just inside the line.

2. Add any embellishments you’d like.  I added some flowers I cut from a coordinating piece of paper and glued them down.

3. Use the letter stickers to write out “Thank You for…”

4. Put the paper in the frame and reassemble.

5. Hang in a spot you each see everyday.  Mine is hung in our upstairs bathroom, right next to our toothbrushes.  You could set it on a dresser or next to the kitchen sink.  You can glue magnets on the back and hang it on the fridge.

6. Use the dry erase marker to write something ordinary that your spouse did for you.  Do it every day.

 

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