I did small things for him, put greetings cards in his lunch for example. One time I put a piece of wax paper in his sandwich and he acted like he didn't notice it when I asked him about it. When he retired all of the greeting cards were in the stuff he brought home from the plant. I encouraged him to buy tools because he was a little bit of a miser, and I knew we could afford it. I went boring places with him that I knew he wanted to go and I knew he wouldn't go alone. I never put him in the middle between his kids and me.

I try to see things from his point of view and embrace all the parts of his personality, even the things about him that I don't like. He is an artist/photographer and bi-polar, so it has been a journey.

For example, when he ruined the dining room chairs to make a tower, I embraced it as a sculpture, not the loss of the chairs.

Scarlett that does take patience, but it sounds scary to me.

Sometimes it's scary as heII. Other times I have found that by embracing his world, I have enriched my own. (There is a lot of insanity in my family, so I am not scared by strange or weird behavior. He's not violent or anything. That would be the deal-breaker.)

But back to Popi's question, there is a book out there somewhere called something like 100 Ways to be Romantic. It had a lot of great small ideas for showing your love and affection in everyday ways. Sorry, I don't know the author.

There are some mental problems in my family also and I have found some of them to be dangerous if they go off their meds. A cousin and my niece, my niece told me she was very dangerous if she doesn't take hers. She is one of the rare people that knows she needs them. My sister is schizophrenic which means a distorted mind. She can be looking for something and look right at it and can't see it. Some of the most decent kind people can turn mean when their mind betrays them.

Be careful.

Thanks, I will keep that in mind, Emma.

Popi, I Googled 100 Ways to be Romantic and a lot of lists came up, so you don't need to buy the book.

Thanks Scarlett. Things are better here now I am happy to say. I have worked on improving my own actions, and that has paid off !

Take care gals.

Good job, Popi!