Date Night

Ever since having Baby #3 more than seven months ago, Brad and I just haven't had the opportunity for many date nights. Ok, truth be told, we haven't had a single date in over a year. I know this sounds neglectful of our marriage and we've heard all the agruments: Take care of your marriage for your children's sake, the best gift you can give your kids is two parents who love and respect each other, and (the scariest of them all) you'll get divorced when the kids have grown because you've forgotten how to be husband and wife. Plus, we've recently been told by lots of friends (with the best of intentions, of course) how we need to plan these formal date nights twice per month complete with a sitter to keep our marriage on the right track.  And it got me thinking...

There is lots to be said in regards to some alone time with your spouse. I completely understand. It does renew our sense of purpose and goals. It does help us to realize, once again, that we do like each other and we're married for the right reasons. It does validate our relationship.

And while a formal date night here and there is nice, it's not always realistic. There are schedules, money, and needs to be met. And I'm just not very good at leaving my kids in someone else's care. It's a fault of mine, I know, but I have to know and trust a person fully to comfortably leave my kids. No mere teenager will do. Also, a date night twice per month gets extremely expensive, even if everything we choose to do is free, there is still a sitter at my house getting $10 per hour. So, this got me thinking about our life and how we can economically meet our needs as husband and wife. Then it dawned on me, really...Almost like a brick falling out of the sky and landing on my head! We may not get many formal "dates" but we carve time out of every single day to spend time together alone. It may not be fancy, it may not be formal, but it does work for us. We have always found time, even if it's only a half hour, to connect emotionally to one another. To sit on the couch and rehash our day, to hold hands and make eye contact, and talk. It is the secret to our happy life together. We make the time every.single.day.