I’m just coming off of a whirlwind of a month birthing and bringing a brand new ‘baby’ out into the world.
Laying my heart and soul work out on the line and releasing it into the world is *almost* as stressful as childbirth and motherhood. The feelings are quite similar actually. And really it was right around 9 months that the Momtographie Online course was being cooked – from the idea, to the planning, to the writing, and revising, and finally releasing it to you.
This process although quite rewarding, has also been a good reminder of my give, give, give tendencies.
I often find myself giving SO much to my work (as an entrepreneur and mom) that I find other relationships in my life getting pushed aside: with my husband, with my friends, and even with myself.
As I’m coming off of the high of this round of my work, I’m once again discovering that this quest to find balance in all of these areas of my life will most likely always be a challenge. But I do realize that the relationships I’ve let slide during this time are some of the most important ones of all, and I’ll be working hard over the next few month to refocus on them.
It began this month with DATE NIGHT extravaganza!
Brendan and I have been working *really* hard at scheduling these weekly. Sometimes at home, sometimes out and about. We’re on about a 3 week streak right now, and the word we’re trying to infuse FUN back into our dates and our marriage.
Before I go too much further I need to add:
Yes we love each other.
Yes we care for each other.
Yes we support each other.
But the missing ingredient when we looked long and hard at our relationship recently were those moments that invoked care free memories of when we first met, late night belly laughs, and the ability to just let loose and be silly and stupid.
So just in case you may be suffering from the same struggle to reconnect with the people you care most about in your own silly way, here’s a bit of a tour of our past few date night festivities with tips for getting your own FUN dates on the books and scheduled.
1) Get creative
Sometimes hiring a sitter is just not an option (ok a lot of times). You could attempt to swap child care with a friend, or just find a way to create an in-home date instead. A few weeks ago we literally sat on the couch for hours playing ‘Would You Rather‘ and taking random personality tests online (we quite enjoyed the Color Code). We definitely had some interesting conversations crop up as a result of both of these activities! Also, creativity, silliness, and fun can crop up in the unlikeliest of places. See that pic to the left? Apparently buying this dress would make me cross dresser according to my husband. (heh!)
2) Be cheapos
If you are fortunate to score a sitter, find a way to make the date cost as little as possible! Instead of heading out for dinner and a movie ($$$) Brendan and I opted for fast food and slot machines at the casino 20 minutes away from home. To keep the casino costs down we each set a $5 limit on the penny slot machines. My casino shy and financially conscious husband was the happiest guy there when he came home 5 cents richer than when he arrived. (I on the another hand lost everything…)
3) Take a walk down memory lane
Our dinner choice was popular burger joint, Five Guys. A place we used to frequent before kids, but now can’t set foot in because of their peanut bins that would be a big no no for our peanut allergic child. It was comfort food at it’s finest and it allowed us to relive old memories of a time when it was just the two of us.
4) Play a game
Many date nights for us had turned into errand running excursions to Target or the grocery store. (does this happen to anyone else? please say yes…) In order to change things up this time, our errands trip to Wal-Mart one night turned into an opportunity to buy gifts for each other in order to keep the focus on the fact that we were still on a date. We decided to split up and look for gifts for one another that were ring in at $10 or less.
3) Add an element of surprise
At the last minute I decided to take the gift game a step further and add in a time limit of 10 minutes. It was quite an invigorating experience racing through Wal-Mart trying to choose the perfect inexpensive gift for my man (I ended up with a $5 DVD with 15 no name horror films — right up his alley). And the smiles and appreciation we felt after checkout was the perfect way to end our fun focused date night. 10 in 10 has quickly become a new favorite date activitiy and I bet we’ll do this one over and over again in the future.
When was the last night you left the kids at home — or in bed, and reconnected with your husband, significant other, friends, or yourself? What’s your favorite thing to do on date night? I’ve found a few great ideas on Pinterest, but I’m definitely looking for more, so if you’ve got ’em lay ’em on me today in the comments!