Things I've Learned Since I Got Married #8 - Fridge Art

Many of the marriage books I've read suggest that leaving little love notes for one's spouse to find is a good tactic to keep the other person thinking about you when they discover the little composition you've created. ASoG is particularly adept at leaving cards or notes in my weekday tallis bag carrier-thingy - and she gets me every time. I get ready to start putting on my tallis in the morning and to my surprise, I find another lovely little note. The tallis bag carrier-thingy is stored on a shelf where I don't pay much attention to it after Shacharis, so she picks some random time of the day and slips them in.

While I like the idea of hiding notes around, we've discovered an even better method of conveying such messages of affection.

One of the most useful, not to mention fun, purchases that ASoG made when we were moving into our apartment was a magnetized dry-erase board for our refrigerator door. We could write down things like upcoming appointments, semachos we were going to attend, errands/chores that needed to be taken care of, and shopping lists - which would all be very visible and thus easier to remember and harder to forget.

However, the best "use" of the dry-erase board by far has nothing to do with run-of-the-mill, day-to-day stuff like the things I just listed. Rather, the dry erase board becomes a vehicle to compose little love notes, poems, display quotes, or the best of all (in my opinion) drawing funny or wacky doodles designed to make the other spouse laugh.

It's really perfect, especially if one spouse wakes up and departs before the other, which gives him/her a chance to scribble/draw something that their spouse is bound to notice when stopping by the kitchen for breakfast. I can't count the times that both ASoG and I have given each other words of encouragement, a laugh, or just something cute to make us think about the other on our little dry-erase board.

Here's an example (drawn by yours truly):

Amazing, isn't it?

To all the engaged, soon-to-be-engaged, married, and soon-to-be-married folks out there, do yourselves a favor and add a magnetic dry-erase board to your shopping list for your new apartment/home. Your spouse will love you for it.