I don’t like getting flowers. I’m not a big fan of gifts or shiny expressions of affection. So my husband is always weirded out by my love of Valentine’s Day.

It makes sense. I’m not into commercialized junk, so what is up with me?

Well, there are many different ways to express love and so many different forms of love that I get annoyed by the typical crap. (That and I don’t like it when people kill flowers and offer their dying corpses as some kind of “cute” gift-but that’s just ME haha)

How I see love and the ways I think it is best displayed aren’t store bought obligations. Yet, I do love a day set aside to honor those ties, I just celebrate it differently.

Modern romantic Valentine expectations are almost always a let down. We can thank the mountains of endless romantic comedies for that. Just as porn gives men weird ideas of what women want and can physically handle, these junk food stories add more to our hips than our hearts.

Romance isn’t what it once was. (Insert “you’re turning into an old lady” joke here) It doesn’t have to be an item or a “grand gesture.”

A little effort, some extra fun is all it take. Holding hands, trying something new… I might be the only woman on the planet who would think it’s cute to paint someone’s face, but that’s just it. When you love someone, you need to get creative for THEM. Flowers are so generic. But a tandem bike is something my husband actually wants haha

Pushing all that aside, I love making and sharing Valentines with my kids and sending them to family and friends. We love them. Why shouldn’t we?

I blame my mom for this love mania. All throughout my childhood she always had something special waiting for my sister and I every Valentine’s Day morning. It made me so happy when I got older and my crushes ignored me or I was in love with cartoon characters.

It doesn’t matter if you’re single or taken, young or old, gay or straight or whatever, everyone can make a cute handmade card or whip up a favorite dish for a friend, family member, love, or all of them.

I just can’t help it. I love, love.