Share the Love

I have started and stopped this post a million times over the past week. I can't quite figure out how to roll everything I want to share into one post. As any good blogger knows, waiting to share a lot doesn't ever help, it typically just makes tings build and stalls you from blogging all together. Oh, wait, is that just me?

When I first saw Kacia post about Sharing Love, I was thrilled and could not wait to be part of it! I began this year with a desire to serve more, and so Share the Love was right up what I was already trying to do. Here are a few big {and small} ways we shared love in February:

1. Family Meal Night - not just our family, but with neighbors too! One night each week, we gather for dinner together, or sometimes just take it to go. But the key is only one person cooks for all three families (six adults, three kids). That means for two weeks straight I get a Wednesday night off cooking. It is miraculous! This keeps us connected with our neighbors, brings conversations, even hard ones, to the surface more naturally, and allows us to love one another through food and fellowship.

2. Meals for Families - this sounds almost the same, but it is not. I am on the list serve at church for when people need meals. I try to gather them up and have one grocery store run and one weekend of cooking where I can serve multiple families. My go-to meal includes:

>> BBQ chicken sammies - this BBQ chicken and these rolls, my favorite
>> My husband's coleslaw (I should share the recipe, eh?)
>> Fresh green beans
>> Bag of frozen sweet potato fries
>> Dessert of some sort
>> 6 pack of beer, when the occasion is right.
{side bar: I really appreciated when people brought us beer right after Behr was born, so do the same when I feel it is appropriate}

3. Babysitting Swaps - after reading this post by Tsh, I emailed Josie to swap babysitting every Thursday night. So far dates have included: a movie night, a grocery store trip, fancy dessert date that only lasted an hour before both parents were ready for bed - I won't tell you which families went on which dates. :)

4. Valentine's Day - it wasn't until I began walking around with Behr handing out Valentine's to his teacher's that I realized that like me, Behr loves giving to other people. We made some simple valentines with packs of crayons or play doh and didn't write names so Behr could just grab and give. The best part was seeing how much joy Behr had in sharing something he was excited about with others. It certainly made me want to cultivate this spirit in him. For me, this was the most unexpected sharing of love this month.

5. Sharing pictures with family. Behr's Grandmom and Yia-yia both love receiving pictures of him in the mail, on the blog, and via email. The two most common ways we share these is via photo cards from Shutterfly and PDF Blurb Books of my instagram photos. Extra bonus: Blurb is offering 25% off purchases from 2/22-2/25. I will be making some Blurb books this weekend for sure!

All photos by Norman Rockwell in honor of my Dad who loves Rockwell 

and always made Valentine's Day special for his daughters.

Disclaimer: compensated affiliate links may be used in this post.