I could start by saying something extremely vague, such as, “I don’t know when sticky notes in our marriage became a thing…..”

Buuuuuut that would be a lie, so let me give you the specifics. As I mentioned in a post about Date Ideas for the Engaged Couple, my husband Andrew and I had a long distance relationship pretty much up until we were married. I know, *gasp* - life had us living in different states, which wasn’t nearly as hard as the season where I was living in England and Andrew in Connecticut. Anyway, all that to say, we grew accustomed to making the absolute most of the limited time we did have together throughout our dating relationship.

Which brings me to sticky notes. Since most of you don’t know my husband, I’ll let you in on a little secret: he’s a man of very few words and likely wouldn’t leave you with a first (or second) impression of being particularly sentimental. But the truth is, I’ve seen his talkative romantic side. Don’t tell him I told you.

I was living in Philly at the time sticky notes became our thing. We were mutually complaining about our visits being too short and wishing we had more time to spend together when Andrew pulled a couple of sticky notes out of his backpack and handed them to me.

You guys. It was a list of all of the adventures he had thought about wanting to do together. Let it sink in. He wrote them down. I’m convinced this is the stuff movies are made of. It was so simple and yet so profoundly thoughtful and sweet.

And from that moment on, sticky notes have been woven throughout our relationship. Whether it’s the ones we’ve left for each other on the bathroom mirror or the sticky note I woke up to on our 3 year anniversary - I’m hereby declaring “Sticky Notes” the 6th love language.

They actually really cause me to think about some of our actions and habits within marriage. When it comes right down to it we really are simple people. And to me our sticky-love-notes say “We know each other. We love each other. And the grand gestures don’t matter near as much as the little reminders that I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for the nitty gritty of daily life.”

Now, I’m no expert on marriage. I certainly don’t have it all together and most days I wonder “Could I have loved better today?” And truthfully most days the answer is yes. But I will say, I’ve learned a lot about communication and some of the things that work best for us. Andrew will tell you I’m an over-thinker when it comes a lot of things, but I know he’s always appreciated my ability to take a step back from a situation and analyze it. I didn’t earn a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology for no reason, after all.

I suppose this marks the beginning of something that’s been on my mind for a while - a collection of lessons I’ve learned from marriage, friendship, and now motherhood, in hopes that maybe it will encourage you, make you laugh a little, and maybe even cause you to start writing your own version of sticky notes to the people who mean the most to you.

And with that, welcome to the start of the Sticky Note Series