Deployment Idea 7# – Scrapper’s Block of Love & Encouragement

It’s been almost a year since the last “Deployment Idea” was posted and I am excited to start them up again this year! This one is by Kristin from kristinfancypants.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

My husband and I got married and then he left for Afghanistan.  All of our “first’s” would be spent apart.  I was excited to send him packages of encouragement, but in 5 months I hadn’t sent one.  That is because he has so many people who love him and me that he had everything he needed and more sent from our parents, siblings, and friends. Even 10 Christmas boxes from Canada and 7 Christmas boxes from my little Children’s Church class were sent!  Then I thought of a great 6 month anniversary present to send.

I had been gifted a 5×8 scrapper’s block of paper and I decided to write things I love about my husband on each page (86 pages total).  I carried this brick of paper and a magic marker around with me for a month.  Every time I thought of something I loved about my husband (that he crafts with us or just how gorgeous his blue eyes are) I would write it down.  Each sentence started with, “I Love…”  Once I was done I started at the back of the block and wrote on the back of the “I love you” pages with, “We Will…”  I wrote 86 things we will do once he is home. The “we wills” include dates to look forward to or just normal things such as doing laundry.  Then I packaged it up with letters from the kids and gummy bears and off I sent it.

He got it and he loves it.  My husband wrote:

“I love the book!  It is an excellent way to show how much you love me. I have read it all and I am sure I will read it again and again.  I know it is harder to come up with ways to show our love when we are apart so much but the book was amazing.  I love to hear or read about what I mean to you.”

My husband’s Love Language is words of encouragement so I got the opportunity to fill up his love bank and because it is in a little flip-like book he can look at it again and again.

This was a cheap and easy way to encourage my husband.  You don’t have to use a brick of scrapbook pages.  I liked them because it was a good number of pages, was made of cardstock and was bound together.  You could use index cards or post-it notes.  You could write why you love him on pieces of paper and put them each in an envelope to open at different times.  My next plan is to do this for the kid’s birthdays!

Kristin Kraabel is a 31 year old saved by grace child of God, wife, tattooed mom, full time Quality Control Manager and beekeeper.  She lives communally with her children, grandmother, parents, and little brother in two houses.  She was married to her husband for 2 weeks when the call came for him to deploy.  She states she is just an everyday Minnesota mama and wife being “real” about life at
kristinfancypants.blogspot.com