When Kelly and I started dating, the majority of our time together was spent on the phone chatting about pretty much anything and everything. We lived 90 minutes apart, so there weren’t many movie dates or outings with friends. We only saw each other on the weekends, so during the week we spent hours upon hours on the phone developing a solid friendship as the foundation of our relationship. Although there were plenty of long pauses between topics and not all of our discussions were dreamy, if there was anything I learned about the man I soon agreed to marry, it was that we could hold a good conversation.
Fast forward several years, and even though my husband still impresses me with his ability to ask the heart-to-heart questions, unfortunately, reality creeps in and sometimes we are so exhausted and busy that we barely have time to get through the “how was your day” conversations, let alone the deep, meaningful ones.
About a year ago, we happened upon this little gem at Anthropolgie, and instantly knew it had our names on it.. a simple book designed to “create a three-year time capsule of (our) relationship… even just one sentence is enough to create a snapshot of your life together…”
It is the perfect solution for us. Not a replacement for quality date nights, but a great means of intentionally maintaining a friendship amidst all the chaos in-between. And the fact that we are actually documenting those answers is just icing. Plus, it’s going to make for some really fun reading material for the grandkids someday in the future.
The book is set up with a question per day, and the space to answer for three years. My favorite part is that you write in the year with each response, so there is no pressure to fill it out every single day – which is good because we do not. Our original intent was every-other day so that the book would last 6 years, but some weeks we miss altogether and others we fill-in every day. Some of the questions are goofy, some of them heartfelt, and one or two we even crossed out and replaced with our own because we thought they were lame. I answer while Kelly is getting ready for work, and he covers my answer and writes in his own as I pour our coffee. We then read one-anothers’ answers out loud and at the very least, it is two minutes out of our day that we have set aside to focus solely on our marriage.
We love this book, and are so excited to re-read our answers as we continue filling out the pages in the years to come.
***Giveaway Update!***
Thank you to everyone who participated in our giveaway, and for the sweet comments! Congratulations to our winner, Tinera! Be sure to check your inbox for our email (from hello@theelleinlove.com) so that we can talk shipping details.
Hugs,
-m
